Will there be food shortages in the UK?

Food, Nutrition and Agriculture
Oakelm
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Re: Will there be food shortages in the UK?

Post by Oakelm »

Plymtom wrote: Thu Mar 19, 2020 12:03 pm Another thought to the prepper's mentality of weathering the storm by using one's preps has in this case highlighted the reality for many of us that stopping shopping normally eats into our buffer, we can see now preps will potentially not last the course, add to that we have the sitting pretty ( if your neighbors notice) makes you stand out as prepared and therefore a target, speaking for ourselves we have to behave as if we are all in the same situation as everyone who has done little or no cupboard filling, despite all being in one or more of the vulnerable groups
This one had crossed my mind so I made a last run out a couple of days ago to add a few things to use up fresh stuff and grab a bit more veg until the garden gets going. Neighbour was heading out as I was returning so did the whole this is madness and couldn’t get anything, aka what I feel is the typical response at the minute. We only moved house a couple of years ago so these neighbours don’t know what we have. Even the garden that has a lot of fruit bushes and trees looks like a typical pretty garden and neither side to us is green fingered so hoping they don’t even notice the potential there.
I’m not the sharing type ;)

The local small co-op seem to be ok for milk and bread as they are still getting deliveries it seems to none perishables that they don’t have stock on or dates of when they will.

I do wonder if they will attempt some form of rationing to slow down stock flying off shelves beyond what the supermarkets themselves have put in.
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Arwen Thebard
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Re: Will there be food shortages in the UK?

Post by Arwen Thebard »

Current thinking seems to be that shopping will clam down once people are used to being at home and will stop panic buying. Im not so sure as I think stocks will start running very low soon across the whole country and people will want to get what they can as soon as anything arrives. Rationing would put a stop to that for sure.
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Arzosah
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Re: Will there be food shortages in the UK?

Post by Arzosah »

I'm just listening to today's press conference, and there's a very clever analogy spreading, comparing the current spike in purchasing to Christmas!
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itsybitsy
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Re: Will there be food shortages in the UK?

Post by itsybitsy »

Arzosah wrote: Sat Mar 21, 2020 2:24 pm I'm just listening to today's press conference, and there's a very clever analogy spreading, comparing the current spike in purchasing to Christmas!
Yes, I saw that too - I've never seen empty shelves like we're seeing at Christmas, though, have you? :?
Arzosah
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Re: Will there be food shortages in the UK?

Post by Arzosah »

itsybitsy wrote: Sat Mar 21, 2020 2:52 pm
Arzosah wrote: Sat Mar 21, 2020 2:24 pm I'm just listening to today's press conference, and there's a very clever analogy spreading, comparing the current spike in purchasing to Christmas!
Yes, I saw that too - I've never seen empty shelves like we're seeing at Christmas, though, have you? :?
Never! And it's never gone on for so long, either - the early shopping rush for Christmas is for presents, the food rush is only about two days.
omega man
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Re: Will there be food shortages in the UK?

Post by omega man »

Arzosah wrote: Sat Mar 21, 2020 3:08 pm
itsybitsy wrote: Sat Mar 21, 2020 2:52 pm
Arzosah wrote: Sat Mar 21, 2020 2:24 pm I'm just listening to today's press conference, and there's a very clever analogy spreading, comparing the current spike in purchasing to Christmas!
Yes, I saw that too - I've never seen empty shelves like we're seeing at Christmas, though, have you? :?
Never! And it's never gone on for so long, either - the early shopping rush for Christmas is for presents, the food rush is only about two days.
I may be wrong but I took it to suggest it was like Christmas demand but without the four months to prepare..

OM
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Jamesey1981
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Re: Will there be food shortages in the UK?

Post by Jamesey1981 »

Just got back from aldi, entire super six range was there, lots of fresh veg gone but some stuff there.

They had some pasta, most of the tins gone apart from red kidney beans and sweetcorn, and weirdly all the tinned fish was full.

Most fresh meat gone

Soap gone, loo roll gone, eggs gone.

And most disturbingly, loads of empty shelves where wine normally is! Had to settle for pinot gris, better than pinot grigio at least.

Other than that pretty much everything was there, without taking my preps into account, I could easily have got enough for a weeks meals, would have just needed a bit of creativity all the obvious stuff is run down but I could find all the major food groups,wouldn't be able to stick rigidly to a list though.
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nightowl
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Re: Will there be food shortages in the UK?

Post by nightowl »

Popped into Asian shop today to get some spices. They still have loads of everything that the supermarkets have sold out of. Massive frozen meat and fish section too.
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ukpreppergrrl
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Re: Will there be food shortages in the UK?

Post by ukpreppergrrl »

omega man wrote: Sat Mar 21, 2020 3:30 pm
Arzosah wrote: Sat Mar 21, 2020 3:08 pm
itsybitsy wrote: Sat Mar 21, 2020 2:52 pm

Yes, I saw that too - I've never seen empty shelves like we're seeing at Christmas, though, have you? :?
Never! And it's never gone on for so long, either - the early shopping rush for Christmas is for presents, the food rush is only about two days.
I may be wrong but I took it to suggest it was like Christmas demand but without the four months to prepare..

OM
That was my view on it too OM.

What I found interesting on my sojourn out into the big wide world for the first time yesterday was the supermarkets totally wiped out of fresh veg. I'm suspecting in a week's time there's going to be a lot of rotten veggies being tossed out! Or else folks not used to cooking from scratch are suddenly going to learn how to! However, supplies are definitely coming in to the supermarkets as there'd be a load (a serious load!) of one particular thing noticeably sitting amidst empty shelves. For example in my local Sainsbury's they'd clearly just had a delivery of Quorn products and thick bleach. Lidl had about a gazillion tins of own brand kidney beans and baked beans, but not much else tinned. Both shops had fresh milk and in-store bakery but not pre-packaged bread. No-one had frozen veg. Almost all the shops had lots of ice cream...I'm presuming it's just not that popular at this time of year! :lol: I think it is simply the logistics of getting it from the warehouses to the stores before it's all bought in the stores. I don't think the warehouses are empty. I think it will return to (vaguely) normal once everyone's living rooms are piled to the ceiling with toilet rolls and baked beans.
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Arzosah
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Re: Will there be food shortages in the UK?

Post by Arzosah »

The success in constant restocking is starting to interest me in a different way: the Just In Time system, we've always been told, only has about 3 days in stock, and then relies on deliveries further down the chain. Or is it a week, in fact? Or two weeks? I do know that without my existing preps, I'd be a tad nervous.