Just been reading about India banning exports of rice (shame they can't ban exports of call centres too!) over concerns about the price of food - http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30200-1311358,00.html . Got me wondering about Britain's own food security. I'd be interested to know the figures of how much food (i.e. grain, dairy, meat etc) the UK produces and how that compares to consumption per person? Basically if all food imports to Britain were cut off tomorrow, and we introduced 1950's style rationing, would we starve or would we be ok? To quote Han Solo: "One thing's for sure, we're all going to be a lot thinner!".
Can Britain feed itself?
- Thread starter scorza
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Not a chance as things stand.
Everyone can think of a farm thats now houses/shops/tesco. If rations were needed in the war days when the population was less and more land was farmed how could we cope now?
staple foods are still UK origin (grains, potatoes (apart from baby sized) root veg and brassicas) but not much else at this time of year. Some fruits such as apples and pear can be winter stored but with no south Africa & Europe imports these would soon be used.
Just remember that all veg is seasonal and salads and fruits aren't grown all year in UK.
Summer would be OK if folks grew their veg own but ya can't get much on a 12 foot square Barret house garden. (trampoline takes up most
)
Everyone can think of a farm thats now houses/shops/tesco. If rations were needed in the war days when the population was less and more land was farmed how could we cope now?
staple foods are still UK origin (grains, potatoes (apart from baby sized) root veg and brassicas) but not much else at this time of year. Some fruits such as apples and pear can be winter stored but with no south Africa & Europe imports these would soon be used.
Just remember that all veg is seasonal and salads and fruits aren't grown all year in UK.
Summer would be OK if folks grew their veg own but ya can't get much on a 12 foot square Barret house garden. (trampoline takes up most
)
Associate
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we would survive theres plenty of land to grow crops and an ocean full of fish.
Without a doubt it could, you'd lose fruits and veg through some seasons but I'm quite sure we would survive, you won't die of starvation because M&S doesn't have Strawberries all year round. Not like the UK is a barren desert (Yet.).
Not at the standard of living we are at now and there would almost certainly be rationing. But I don't think it would be that bad that millions would starve and famine would take hold, if it came to the point were the only option we had was to feed ourselves -- we would make it work.
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Yup lots of land and barely any fish.
thats not true
Soldato
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Yes.
Without riots (no M&S strawberries
) and lots of land being converted to grow food crops. No
It is Energy where we are stuffed...
Without riots (no M&S strawberries
) and lots of land being converted to grow food crops. NoIt is Energy where we are stuffed...
Soldato
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It's not India, it's more the State of Punjab in India. It's like the bread basket of India and perhaps the world where it exports its produce. Rice, flour, all sorts is made in the rich planes of the Punjab. Having visited it fair few times, once in Amritsar, many times in Jalandher, once in Chandigar and a few times in Ludhiana, it is a beautiful place with nothing but greenary, farms and ideal weather.
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Well, I guess the UK populace wouldn’t die without food imports. We can certainly grow enough crops, rear enough livestock to sustain ourselves, its just that we wouldn’t benefit from a diet of the more exotic foods we’ve all become accustomed to.
Farm products are easily available to any of the UK, we just tend to get bored of eating them and fancy something different. Also, I don’t know if I’m talking about something I know nothing about, but I feel the UK food industry is full of too many processed foods.
We’ve become a microwave nation. We aren’t without means, water, land, machinery to grow and feed ourselves…. I’m sure if all imports were taken away, we’d find a way to feed ourselves….
Just means no banana’s in your cornflakes in the morning..!!! lol
Farm products are easily available to any of the UK, we just tend to get bored of eating them and fancy something different. Also, I don’t know if I’m talking about something I know nothing about, but I feel the UK food industry is full of too many processed foods.
We’ve become a microwave nation. We aren’t without means, water, land, machinery to grow and feed ourselves…. I’m sure if all imports were taken away, we’d find a way to feed ourselves….
Just means no banana’s in your cornflakes in the morning..!!! lol
we have enough land and there are enough fish in the oceans to be honest. Yes we know fish numbers have dropped but no1 said anything about the long term.
Think of all the warehouses of tinned food etc there current are, the amount of livestock around too. we would just have to ration and not waste. we could all probably live on the amount we discard in our wheelie bins every week.
Think of all the warehouses of tinned food etc there current are, the amount of livestock around too. we would just have to ration and not waste. we could all probably live on the amount we discard in our wheelie bins every week.
stocks of fish in the oceans are at dangerously low levels, which are getting lower every year.
Soldato
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no we cannot,no where near ,many would starve,it takes many square km to sustain 1 human ,assuming they eat veg only,which is most efficient were still a few 10s of million over subscribed,take the uk population and devide it by the available farmland we have and thats how many we can feed
all those battery hens, all that battery livestock.
Hm, im fairly sure 1km of battery hens could feed quite a few people for a year, eggs and all, and when grain to feed them started running out. .chow down!
to be honest, look at all the bloody pigeons and seagulls there are flying about, thats a hell of a lot of meat too.
Soldato
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Straight away you have taken the wrong approach, you have to think of it in energy terms, what feeds the hens ?, chickin feed, wheres that come from ? Growing it!
You start with the energy from the sun, that gets absorbed by plants, the chickins eat it, consume some of that energy to stay alive and lay eggs, then we eat the eggs.
Had we just ate the plants in the 1st place no energy would be lost in sustaining chickins.
If the UK was in that much of a crysis, kill all livestock and store there meat instantly and divert all efforts into growing plants.