Re: Is Brexit over ??
Originally Posted by
AnnieS
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Well if you get to the bottom of the lamb economic puzzle JBR please do share. Because I've never understood why we eat tasteless tomatoes when in Italy and other countries they have the most delicious ones. Apparently there are delicious ones here too but people have a secret supply! I've also never understood why in Portugal and italy you can buy the most amazing wines for knockdown prices in the most average cafe bar but here we have cheap imitation plonk that tastes like (rude word). Same with coffee and the endless list of foods. I have a suspicion it's more of a corporate stitch up much like our fish!
Lamb first?
We are told that the UK appetite for lamb consists mostly of legs, so we export most of the rest and import legs (to cut a long story short) with most of these exports going to France and Germany.
Supposedly we import about a third of what we use.
As with other things (and as I say earlier) the way we eat and what we eat have changed dramatically over the years so that once-familiar meals are no longer common.
Even the Sunday joint is not the "thing" it once was, and who nowadays regularly buys lamb or mutton scrag end?
People buy sirloin steak but who buys shin of beef any more?
Because we aren't eating these things they become increasingly difficult to find and the price rises.
Will we ever see a change in tastes again to reverse trends like this?
Who knows.
But it does seem strange that we forgo tasty yet economical cuts of meat in favour of more expensive and often less healthy or less sustainable options, so all hope is not yet lost.
Tomatoes etc:
I completely agree.
As an example, I couldn't even buy some of my favourite wines even when we were in the EU and they are readily-available where they are made.
I have to travel there to buy them, then I'm faced with a huge variety in different colours even and even as an EU member I was only allowed to bring back a limited quantity.
So for me, in this instance, the EU has had bu@@er-all to do with it; rather it seems to be the winemakers being happy with their lot and not promoting or exporting some truly great wines.
I think that regarding much produce our supermarkets are largely to blame, together with consumers.
At least we can often buy tomatoes on the vine and even find specialist varieties nowadays, but the bulk is (as we know) governed by price and profitability.
When an average consumer looks at a packet of tomatoes they are not interested in the taste, or even where they come from.
"60p for these or £1-69 for those" is most frequently the deciding factor, sadly.
We know that the cheaper imported stuff often has little taste, be it tomatoes or a range of other produce.
Ripening things on their journey to the shops doesn't improve things.
But I don't know what the answer is other than growing more of our own where it is viable to do so.
That said, I wonder how many here remember the days before the EEC meant no more Israeli or South African fruit & veg?
IIRC the Israelis used to take up the capacity on flights with produce so that their fruit arrived fresh and tasty; could we see a return to that sort of thing, maybe?
After all, we know that our supermarkets especially are always after increasing profitability while providing what people want so all it would take is a little publicity and some good produce to start the ball rolling.
It's a big subject without any easy answers, and I have probably taken up too much time and space on it already.
It will certainly be interesting to see what changes in the near future, if anything.