Thursday, Mar 26, 2009
A shift to local sourcing
Evening Standard: Sainsbury chief’s cheap veg pledge
I've been waiting for this to happen. A fall in the value of Sterling was bound to lead to an increase in the UK production of a wide variety of goods
Posted by flashman @ 09:07 AM (619 views) Add Comment
9 Comments
- If you do not have an admin password leave the password field blank.
- If you would like to request a password allowing you to add comments and blog news articles without needing each one approved manually, send an e-mail to the webmaster.
- Your email address is required so we can verify that the comment is genuine. It will not be posted anywhere on the site, will be stored confidentially by us and never given out to any third party.
- Please note that any viewpoints published here as comments are user's views and not the views of HousePriceCrash.co.uk.
- Please adhere to the Guidelines
1. mountain goat said...
As it should be really. With all this rain and mild temperatures the UK has a good stable climate for growing food. I hope farming becomes more financially viable again.
2. 51ck-6-51x said...
Here here (excuse the pun).
3. 51ck-6-51x said...
Here here (excuse the pun).
[dupe due to my lack of password... got to sort out my Firefox settings.]
4. flashman said...
mountain goat: Yes, lower prices and more British jobs can't be a bad thing. A better balance of payments and real production could well be our future
5. doggett said...
"A fall in the value of Sterling was bound to lead to an increase in the UK production of a wide variety of goods"
Quite probably, but, as far as agricultural produce is concerned, on what timescale? You can't just turn it on like a tap. If you live in the country and have kept your eyes open you'll have noticed the grubbing out of thousands of acres of orchards over the last decade; they're not coming back in a hurry. And I doubt whether the production of vegetables can be increased as quickly as would be required.
King said: “As far as the fresh food element goes, the inflation figure will always wax and wane. Over the next six months, we won't have to buy in euro-denominated fruit, we will source it from the UK.” As in, 'we'll buy from the UK producers we've ignored if we could get it cheaper from somewhere else'?
6. flashman said...
dogget: yes, it can't happen overnight but any progress is good. Even a 5% increase in British production (not just food) will have a massive effect on the economy. It's even possible that we could eventually see the repatriation of several factories
7. tudorian said...
Spoke to my mum this weekend.
She had all hands to the deck, digging her garden and readying it to become a vegetable plot.
First time in 4 decades that she's considered growing her own veggies.
I wonder how many more people are considering supplimenting their income / pensions like this
8. happy mondays said...
tudorian said...I wonder how many more people are considering supplimenting their income / pensions like this?
I'm sure a lot of people would like to, unfortunately 50% the population live in flats & probably 20% have turned there garden into a parking bay! And the other 30% have'nt a clue on growing F**k all..
9. doggett said...
@Flashman; "Even a 5% increase in British production (not just food) will have a massive effect on the economy."
I don't disagree. Trouble is, if it's only because of the current weakness of sterling then the investment involved would be too risky. You'd need stability, and as far as I can see that would involve some degree of protectionism of whatever you consider to be core sectors. This wouldn't accord with the dominant ideology of the last 25 years (but I suspect that may have had its day).
" It's even possible that we could eventually see the repatriation of several factories"
As above.
tudorian said; "I wonder how many more people are considering supplementing their income / pensions like this."
When I took on an allotment 10 years ago only 25% of the plots were worked. Now all are taken, and there's a waiting list. And it's the same for all the local allotments. So, lots.
From my own observations I'd say that 'happy mondays' point that "30% haven't a clue on growing F**k all" is an underestimate.
About 20% know what they're doing; 30% don't but are willing to learn. The rest either think you just scratch the surface, throw in some seeds, then come back in three months and take away several wheelbarrows full of vegetables (they find it doesn't work like that) and/or they discover that it's too much like hard work and that they'd rather be doing something useful, like sitting on their @rse watching the telly (or as they put it, "I just don't have the time".)