Raspberries 778The Reid Here speaks the inexpert. Surely Britain is noted for cool weather vegetables and soft fruits and ovine animals? So why try to be a pampas? Of course there's a...
I don't think it's possible. We are likely to become a "third world country, probably in living memory, but I think we would still like to eat.
Because while we can live without most things we "want" we cannot live without food.
Buying on the international market - importing - means UK's buyers have to be able to pay world prices and these could increase drastically if there is any problem in world food production-distribution beit natural or man-induced; we may not be able to afford to pay - we are no longer top dog, or won't be soon. If we have production of basic foods in UK, our govt has the chance to distribute what is produced here; if the country canot afford to buy it there won't be much to distribute.
But you cannot set up food production overnight; we need to maintain what we have which means protecting it to the extent that it can continue despite market forces. Exactly how you provide this protection is a problem with international agreements about subsidy and protectionism but there is one way which is exempt from world agreements. AFAIK there are no international agreements which prevent UK consumers buyng UK foods and that would save them - and give us a form of food security for the future.
OK, have just re-read the post and I may have misunderstood the question. Did you mean "Why protect farming?" or "Why shouldn't people work at low wages in farming?" If the latter, there are already plenty of foreign seasonal workers in agriculture for the harvest because UK personnel are not interested in doing the work and without the foreign workers the produce would rot on the ground. The farms concerned could not afford to carry them as workers at other times of year so what is the solution? A harvest "National Service" where everyone within a certain age range is "called up" perhaps?
Cheers jane
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