Saving For a Space Ship Posted May 3, 2020 Author Share Posted May 3, 2020 (edited) Households unable to afford food up by 81 per cent in just two weeks https://www.newstatesman.com/science-tech/coronavirus/2020/05/foodbanks-household-groceries-prices-food-increase-budget No child should go hungry in this crisis for want of school meals Emergency income support is needed to help the millions of households experiencing food insecurity in lockdown https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/may/03/no-child-should-go-hungry-in-this-crisis-for-want-of-school-meals almost a fifth of UK homes with children go hungry in lockdown https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/may/03/exclusive-fifth-of-uk-homes-children-hungry-lockdown Edited May 3, 2020 by Saving For a Space Ship Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saving For a Space Ship Posted May 5, 2020 Author Share Posted May 5, 2020 'Distributing food parcels to the needy is an old mafia tactic' Coronavirus: The lure of mafia money during the crisis https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-52537573 Quote The coronavirus is new, but distributing food parcels to the needy is an old mafia tactic. "The aim is to gain credibility and to step in as an alternative to the state," says Nicola Gratteri, an anti-mafia investigator and head of the prosecutor's office in Catanzaro, in Calabria. The goal is to strengthen a base of support, he says. Italy's economy has been in a bad way for years, with high unemployment and slow economic growth. The lockdown tipped some people over the edge into desperation. But accepting even the smallest help from a mafioso is extremely dangerous. "The mafia has never done anything out of generosity. That concept doesn't exist for them," says Enza Rando who works for an anti-mafia organisation. "All they know is "I'll scratch your back if you scratch mine'." Nothing is asked for in return at the start. But everyone will have to pay back the favour in some form.... ..But the mafia will always come back to collect, says Gaspare Mutolo, a former Sicilian mafioso who became a key witness in dozens of mafia cases. "That's exactly how I used to operate," he says. "I was always so charming. I appeared generous. I never showed my true colours. But mind you, I was a criminal who killed more than 20 people." Mutolo spoke to the BBC from a secret location where he is under police protection and spends his days painting. His works often depict the tentacles of the mafia reaching into communities. He says that whenever he "helped" a family in need, they didn't care who he was... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adamLancs Posted May 7, 2020 Share Posted May 7, 2020 One thing for sure, I won't be spending time queueing up in a supermarket car park. Kicked me in the head more than anything that did. What life is like when society starts to fail, and the picture it paints in your head, is quite bewildering. Food = Figured out how to have food for these pandemics now, low storage cost. Can't tell the secret but it's pretty obvious to many now. Warmth = small room, stove fire. Don't rely on gas or you'll be done. Get a hole in the wall and a piece of pipe and you're set. Shelter = dig a hole on a hill and make sure the rain goes around it. That's before it gets all apocalyptic and people start raiding farms and estates. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saving For a Space Ship Posted July 29, 2020 Author Share Posted July 29, 2020 Part One of the two-part National Food Strategy contains urgent recommendations to support this country through the turbulence caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, and to prepare for the end of the EU exit transition period on 31 December 2020. It focuses on making sure a generation of our most disadvantaged children do not get left behind, and grasping the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to decide what kind of trading nation we want to be. https://www.nationalfoodstrategy.org/partone/ Executive Summary and Recommendations https://www.nationalfoodstrategy.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/NFS-Part-One-ES.pdf + Huge growth in free school meals urged to tackle food poverty crisis https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/jul/29/huge-growth-in-free-school-meals-urged-to-tackle-food-poverty-crisis Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saving For a Space Ship Posted August 3, 2020 Author Share Posted August 3, 2020 Quote England From 1 August, the government will pause shielding unless the transmission of COVID-19 in the community starts to rise significantly. This means: the government will no longer be advising you to shield the support from the National Shielding Service of free food parcels, medicine deliveries and care will stop NHS Volunteer Responders will carry on delivering the food (you buy) , prescriptions and essential items to you if you need it you will still be eligible for priority supermarket slots (if you have registered by 17 July) https://britishlivertrust.org.uk/pausing-of-shielding-guidance-from-saturday-1st-august/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saving For a Space Ship Posted August 6, 2020 Author Share Posted August 6, 2020 (edited) US government shelves survey that painted bleak picture of Covid-19 life Census Bureau survey tracked quality-of-life measures Findings showed many Americans do not have enough food Quote “According to data collected between 16 and 21 July, more than 29 million Americans do not have enough food.” https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/aug/06/census-bureau-americans-unemployment-economy-coronavirus Edited August 6, 2020 by Saving For a Space Ship Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saving For a Space Ship Posted August 6, 2020 Author Share Posted August 6, 2020 US government shelves survey that painted bleak picture of Covid-19 life Census Bureau survey tracked quality-of-life measures Findings showed many Americans do not have enough food https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/aug/06/census-bureau-americans-unemployment-economy-coronavirus Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saving For a Space Ship Posted September 14, 2020 Author Share Posted September 14, 2020 (edited) Extreme poverty 'will double by Christmas' in UK because of Covid-19 End of coronavirus job and income support expected to spark 61% rise in food bank use https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/sep/14/coronavirus-extreme-poverty-in-uk-will-double-by-christmas-trust-predicts Quote ...Despite unprecedented demand for charity food since lockdown – 100,000 people used food banks for the first time between April and June – the trust said ending furlough in October would trigger a rise in food bank use of at least 61% – equivalent to a year-on-year increase of 300,000 parcels. “Our research finds that Covid-19 has led to tens of thousands of new people needing to use a food bank for the first time. This is not right. If we don’t take action now, there will be further catastrophic rises in poverty in the future,” said Emma Revie, the chief executive of the Trussell Trust. The trust said the impact of rising unemployment on low-income families after the planned winding down of the job retention scheme raised the prospect of a significant “reshaping of the landscape of poverty, destitution and food insecurity in this country”. The trust said withdrawing the £20 a week rise, which would leave millions of people £1,040 a year worse off overnight, would increase food bank use by 10%. This follows estimates by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, which said last week removal of the uplift would pull 700,000 more people into poverty. Although the trust welcomed the £9bn Covid welfare package provided by the government since March, it said rising food bank use indicated this was not enough to support people in crisis – 43% of people referred to food banks in April had an income that was “not at a level to sustain a minimum quality of life”... Edited September 14, 2020 by Saving For a Space Ship Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
winkie Posted September 14, 2020 Share Posted September 14, 2020 https://metro.co.uk/2020/09/14/grouse-hunts-and-shooting-get-special-exemption-from-rule-of-six-13269362/ Say this isn't so. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Spaniard Posted September 15, 2020 Share Posted September 15, 2020 From Melbourne, Australia: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKM_ABZrplE Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saving For a Space Ship Posted November 12, 2020 Author Share Posted November 12, 2020 Poverty: 50 ways to close a food bank As food banks struggle to cope with rising demand, they - and politicians - could learn valuable lessons from volunteers in Canada about the precarious nature of charity food provision. https://www.theguardian.com/society/patrick-butler-cuts-blog/2013/may/28/poverty-50-ways-to-close-a-food-bank-uk ...."Power describes how the pioneer Canadian food bankers fervently believed their role was temporary, and that food banks would quickly close once the economy picked up. But even when things did pick up, food banks expanded: they invested in headquarters and equipment, hired full time staff, ran glossy marketing campaigns to publicise food drives, and accepted corporate sponsors. The result, says Power, is that food banks: ...have become an integral part of our social safety net That is precisely what is in danger of happening in the UK. Food banks are not merely proliferating, but are now co-opted into the fringes of the welfare state: following the abolition of the social fund, some local authorities give them grants in return for them playing a formal part in local welfare crisis provision. The Department for Work and Pensions issues food bank vouchers to claimants through job centres. Delays in processing benefit claims (up to eight weeks, one food banker told me this week), and increasing incidence of benefit sanctions, mean the state is leaning ever more heavily on voluntary food banks to help people who it excludes or fails. Even the Trussell trust, an impressive UK food bank network whose operating model explicitly attempts to design out many of food banks' structural flaws, is feeling the strain. What started as a community-based ideal - local food for local people - is becoming regionalised. Some food banks collect more food than others, and surplus produce must be shipped from one bank to another. Logistics is becoming a key operational issue. Trussell's executive chairman, Chris Mould, told me he was actively talking to haulage companies about how - in an act of corporate generosity - they might help it move tonnes of donated food around its foodbank networks. It has joined forces with the supermarket giant, Tesco, for a series of heavily promoted food collection days, major events that are vital to replenish shrinking food bank stocks, especially outside the "harvest festival" Autumn period, when public donations are strongest."... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saving For a Space Ship Posted November 17, 2020 Author Share Posted November 17, 2020 (edited) The British government's first disaster of 2021? A food shortage https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/nov/17/british-government-food-shortage-uk-fresh-europe-ports-storage-space "A few days ago, I carried out a small experiment. I sent almost identical requests to two government departments. I asked the business department whether the UK holds strategic oil reserves. Yes: the UK keeps stocks equivalent to 90 days of net imports. I asked the environment department whether the UK holds strategic food reserves. No: they aren’t necessary, because “the UK has a highly resilient food supply chain”. The government treats oil as a strategic asset but food as a matter for the market. So what happens if our “highly resilient food supply chain” breaks after Brexit transition, on 1 January? It won’t, the government promised. “Our risk assessments show there will not be an overall shortage of food in the UK,” whether or not there’s a deal. But when I pressed it to show me these risk assessments, the plural turned out to be misleading. There’s just one assessment: a “reasonable worst-case scenario” for the UK’s borders. This is grim enough. It suggests that the flow of freight through the ports could be reduced by between 20% and 40%, while trucks travelling in either direction could be delayed by up to two days: a big problem for fresh food. This month, the National Audit Office reviewed the government’s border arrangements, and found them to be late, untested, “inherently complex”, “high-risk” and “very challenging” Edited November 17, 2020 by Saving For a Space Ship Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy T Posted November 17, 2020 Share Posted November 17, 2020 Panic buying to start at the end of the Christmas holidays then? It didn’t take much last time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saving For a Space Ship Posted December 13, 2020 Author Share Posted December 13, 2020 Supermarkets 'told to stockpile food' as fears grow of no-deal Brexit Stores reported to have been warned to stockpile food and other essential supplies in anticipation of shortages https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/dec/13/supermarkets-told-to-stockpile-food-as-fears-grow-of-no-deal-brexit Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeanutButter Posted December 13, 2020 Share Posted December 13, 2020 Yes I just read the same story in Sunday Times. Fundamentally I don’t trust our govt to ensure anything goes smoothly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saving For a Space Ship Posted December 14, 2020 Author Share Posted December 14, 2020 How will Brexit impact food prices in the UK? https://www.bigissue.com/latest/how-will-brexit-impact-food-prices-and-food-poverty-in-the-uk/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saving For a Space Ship Posted December 24, 2020 Author Share Posted December 24, 2020 Supermarkets airlifting fruit and vegetables to UK amid shortage fears https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/dec/23/lufthansa-fly-fresh-food-uk-shortage-fears-fruit-vegetables-border-french-blockade Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saving For a Space Ship Posted December 24, 2020 Author Share Posted December 24, 2020 Supermarkets airlifting fruit and vegetables to UK amid shortage fears https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/dec/23/lufthansa-fly-fresh-food-uk-shortage-fears-fruit-vegetables-border-french-blockade Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saving For a Space Ship Posted March 7, 2021 Author Share Posted March 7, 2021 Food scarcity fears prompt plan to ease post-Brexit checks on EU imports https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/mar/06/food-scarcity-fears-prompt-plan-to-ease-post-brexit-checks-on-eu-imports Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mikhail Liebenstein Posted March 7, 2021 Share Posted March 7, 2021 (edited) 12 minutes ago, Saving For a Space Ship said: Food scarcity fears prompt plan to ease post-Brexit checks on EU imports https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/mar/06/food-scarcity-fears-prompt-plan-to-ease-post-brexit-checks-on-eu-imports Interesting. I've recently ordered and received food and drink from the EU, I was expecting a import duty bill, but that didn't happen. Even on a half case of wine. Edited March 7, 2021 by Mikhail Liebenstein Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Megadebt Posted March 7, 2021 Share Posted March 7, 2021 On 28/04/2020 at 09:51, richmondtw said: The world and the uk is vastly overpopulated so this is surely an obvious result. I was talking to a guy a few months ago who said when he did economics O level in 1980 it was an exam question so it was on the radar 40 years ago. People say we should build more houses. Houses are built on land. Land is needed to grow food. Ergo there will be a food shortage. This is not rocket science. The Elephant in the room here is that meat and diary food production is unsustainable for a high world popultion, the key more of the population on a vegan diet. (boring yawn) Cattle also causes global warming; methane is a very powerful greenhouse gas much worse than CO2. Also the calorie /acre conversion rate for crop food production, as opposed meat and dairy, is hugely multiplied. Producing real meat from lab cultures may be the way forward in the furture. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saving For a Space Ship Posted March 11, 2021 Author Share Posted March 11, 2021 (edited) On 07/03/2021 at 09:57, Megadebt said: The Elephant in the room here is that meat and diary food production is unsustainable for a high world popultion, the key more of the population on a vegan diet. (boring yawn) Cattle also causes global warming; methane is a very powerful greenhouse gas much worse than CO2. Also the calorie /acre conversion rate for crop food production, as opposed meat and dairy, is hugely multiplied. Producing real meat from lab cultures may be the way forward in the furture. Perhaps another elephant in the room for increasing growing energy storage, fruit & veg Oh Dear ... Quote Carbon-negative crops may mean water shortages for 4.5 billion people https://www.newscientist.com/article/2270227-carbon-negative-crops-may-mean-water-shortages-for-4-5-billion-people/ Quote Billions more people could have difficulty accessing water if the world opts for a massive expansion in growing energy crops to fight climate change, research has found. The idea of growing crops and trees to absorb CO2 and capturing the carbon released when they are burned for energy is a central plank to most of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s scenarios for the negative emissions approaches needed to avoid the catastrophic impacts of more than 1.5°C of global warming. But the technology, known as bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS), could prove a cure worse than the disease, at least when it comes to water stress. Fabian Stenzel at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany and his colleagues project that the water needed to irrigate enough energy crops to stay under the 1.5°C limit would leave 4.58 billion people experiencing high water stress by 2100 – up from 2.28 billion today. That is 300 million more people than a scenario in which BECCS isn’t used at scale and warming spirals to a devastating 3°C. “I was a little bit shocked. The takeaway message is, so far, we haven’t looked at side effects enough. To limit all the trade-offs that we might face in terms of climate change and climate change mitigation, it’s really important to look at the holistic Earth system,” says Stenzel.... Edited March 11, 2021 by Saving For a Space Ship Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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