Is that a serious question?
Made in Britain?
- Thread starter Ice Tea
- Start date
Partly, though I guess it's mostly rhetorical.
For some reason we keep buying our veg from Spain and most of it isn't very good quality :/
Last time there was shortage some supermarkets got theirs from the US and it was so much better.
I'd find another manufacturer. Preferably British but not if they broke every month.
The reason is that there is vast industrial farming on the cheap in one area of Spain (Almeria) and it has very lax employment conditions. So the produce is as cheap as it possibly can be, quality be damned.
It's mainly cheap plastic greenhouses. The area covered is so large that it's visible from space as a shiny white blob (the greenhouse roofing is usually white plastic) and increases the albedo of the area so much that it's experiencing cooling while the rest of Spain is warming.
Here's a very brief summary of "Costa del Polythene".
https://geographyfieldwork.com/CostadelPolythene.htm
There's a lot more detail if you want to look for it. It's not very nice.
Soldato
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One of the sadness's of modern food production is that flavour is a secondary consideration. Carrots are grown for quantity not flavor. Tomatoes and Cucumbers have thick skins to give them long shelf lives and apples and potatoes are grown for their storing capabilities as much as anything.
Tomatoes never ripen at the same time on the vine yet we see the pretty packets full of "ripe" tomatoes on the vine. They've released ethane in the greenhouse to encourage that. The flesh is still white and tasteless. Historically sprouts never ripened at once but sequentially but that didn't suit commercial harvesting so now sprout varieties ripen together and the old variety is lost. It means we can get the same veg in any month of the year but we have forfeited flavour in many respects. Not so much about blaming Spain as our eating habits and mass agriculture.
Talking of Made in Britain despite choosing English UK the forum keeps correcting my English to Yankanese.
Yes, you can't just expect suppliers to go beyond what the demand requires as it's not sensible. The only measure that the vast majority of consumers respond to is price and that is never going to change so long as we continue to obsess over silly metrics like GDP or focus so much on gross profitability at the cost of everything else.
If Money is all there is to be worshiped, then culture is essentially extinct.
If Money is all there is to be worshiped, then culture is essentially extinct.
I use a local greengrocer delivery service and there's a decent range of British grown produce (obviously changing seasonally). As expected, there's a price difference.
It's good stuff, mind and I don't mind paying the extra.
Not sure why but the stuff they get that's clearly from abroad is much better too - presumably it's not from mass-market producers that have been beaten into submission by the supermarkets. You have to ask, if taste is missing then are the usual nutrients and vitamins also there in lesser quantities?
Obviously not everyone wants to to pay, or is able to pay the extra. I'm grateful I can pick and choose.
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Soldato
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Having lived in Spain I've never been impressed with their fruit and veg. Other than Valencia oranges in Valencia.
I was surprised at a Tenerife fruit market to see red and white marbled potatoes. Origin was UK. I've never seen them in the UK.
The Olives though, they are amazing. I hate Olives but will happily munch them in Spain!!!!
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Soldato
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I agree. I also hated the olives I had in Greece and Italy, but the ones I picked up from the indoor market in Cartegena were fantastic. No bitterness at all.
I'd buy a 'Made in Britain' if it was actually made in Britain.
One of the main reasons we don't have a thriving industry is because things can be made cheaper in other places. I'm sure there are incentives that can be made to encourage items to be made here.
At some point something is going to have to change. There are millions of people not suited for office jobs.
One of the main reasons we don't have a thriving industry is because things can be made cheaper in other places. I'm sure there are incentives that can be made to encourage items to be made here.
At some point something is going to have to change. There are millions of people not suited for office jobs.
Only their classic waxed Jacket, most of the rest of their range is made abroad afaik
Soldato
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Chapel Down sparkling wine, bottoms up!
Those jobs simply will never exist again, global manufacturing employment is dropping, not merely in developed countries.
/start hyperbole
If they don't want to work in stale offices pretending to be productive, I'm sure these enterprising folks can figure out their only option is to be drug mules and sex slaves to satisfy the unending hypocrisy of the London/Home County elite.
/end hyperbole
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ah, just the jackets then
The steel industry was mentioned earlier in the thread....British made sheet metal working machines make me think quality, folders/press brakes etc. Keetona and Edwards, although I know Keetona no longer exist, not sure about Edwards
Soldato
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Very appropriate time wise.
They were ****ing horrible. Horrible to drive, horrible to ride in as a passenger and horrible to work on. They rusted so badly that even Lancia Beta owners took pity on Metro owners.