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From Spain to Germany, farmers warn of fresh food shortages

bloomberg.com

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Re: From Spain to Germany, farmers warn of fresh food shortages

#331

Post by andarleen »

burntoutfire wrote: post #279
andarleen wrote: post #277

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually, this is a golden opportunity for east european countries to grow their agro industry. COVID now gives legal grounds to keep workers in their own country, so they neither catch the virus nor enjoy british racism. This can help their economies as well.

There's plenty of agricultural industry in EE (at least in Poland), it's just that it pays a pittance, so the locals prefer to go west, while farmers employ migrants from poorer countries.

Indeed, but with growing costs and lowering stocks in WE, and people forced to stay in their own countries, things could change. Ideally for the benefit of of workers too as EE farmers might have to increase wages as well. Those who own plots of land could even start farming on their own and coop to sell in WE countries.

Re: From Spain to Germany, farmers warn of fresh food shortages

#332

Post by tomp »

rusk wrote: post #321
neilwilson wrote: post #260

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With 3 million people in the UK still without work that want it - and many more laid off, redundant or self-employed without clients, the solution should be obvious. Pay a decent wage and you'll get the people. The era of cheap labour is over.

I don’t think English people want to do this kind of work ...

If the 80% of salary from the government came with strings attached (i.e. "basic job", not UBI "basic income"), this wouldn't be a problem (provided that either masks are provided as well, or work is organized so that social distancing is maintained).

Re: From Spain to Germany, farmers warn of fresh food shortages

#333

Post by nradov »

mycall wrote: post #285
groby_b wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a very naive take on the world. You'll need at the very least half an acre to feed yourself sustainably, and that's if you're highly optimized. It's also backbreaking work, and you won't be able to do much else except subsistence farming. In short, it's not practical for the vast majority of the population. The closest we can probably get to this model is instead CSA memberships, supporting farms right outsid…

What is your take on vertical farming [1]? If this was more widespread, we could take large loads off the farming sector and support the promise of grown local benefits. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vertical_farming

Vertical farming takes just as much labor as horizontal farming and the capital expenses are higher. The economics only work for highly perishable luxury crops, not staples.

Re: From Spain to Germany, farmers warn of fresh food shortages

#334

Post by grumple »

nemo44x wrote: post #300

In the US I expect prime meat to be considerably cheaper than usual. With restaurants not buying there will be a glut and I expect regular stores (instead of just speciality shops and suppliers) will be getting it for awhile. If there’s 1 thing the US has it is food and the supply chain is excellent. If anything this is an opportunity for the US to make a move on trade with Britain and possibly the EU to export our A…

I hope you’re right. What’s the situation at the southern border though? Aren’t most of our workers migrants (often undocumented)?

Re: From Spain to Germany, farmers warn of fresh food shortages

#335

Post by kspacewalk2 »

felipemnoa wrote: post #253
baybal2 wrote: post #68

Coworkers in Shenzhen are already saying that more fancier foods are already getting scarcer in the inland China, and prices are going up by day. China has done a massive livestock slaughter campaign when the quarantine was declared. That has actually depressed the food prices quite a bit for the first months, but after that, the prices have shot up. This is how they got that much meat: https://mustsharenews.com/wp-c…

>> And people were saying that we will never see a famine in Asia in the 21st century. That optimism was premature... I wonder whether people will decide to take their chances with the coronavirus if faced with famine? Something tells me that people will risk it with the coronavirus rather than die of starvation.

In a month or so, once the daily deaths subside, people will risk it with the coronavirus rather than having a recession turn into a depression. This will be the correct choice.

Re: From Spain to Germany, farmers warn of fresh food shortages

#336

Post by sdoering »

mft_ wrote: post #315
jagger27 wrote: post #309

Got a butternut squash in your pantry? Maybe a couple of tomatoes? Cook it up for dinner and save some seeds! Wash off the pulp and dry them out on a paper towel. It's not too late to start some seedlings, and it's a nice way to pass the time. I've also been experimenting with different dried beans that we stocked up on, and most of them have a pretty high germination rate. Roma beans are super tasty and high in prot…

Thanks for this! Can you recommend some simple concise instructions on growing tomatoes? I’ve explored a little in the past, but always seemed to run into fairly impenetrable instructions. A basic list of what to buy (in non-gardeners’ terminology) and some simple instructions would be great.

Growing tomatoes depends a lot on the climate you are living in. Tomatoes grow and ripen ideally above 20°celsius. You can do this also in your flat. Or on a balcony.

Get 1 bucket (volume 10 L) per plant if you do it on a balcony. or on patio next to you southern wall.

never water them from above. tomatoes do not like wet leaves.

if you can get a 2m stick as a support for the plant. have the plants at least 50cm from each other.

to get them to grow, get some seeds from ideally some heirloom variety. if not that's fine. just do not use seeds from supermarket tomatoes as they tend to produce wildly different offsprings (read about F1 hybrids if interested).

get small 8 - 10cm grow pots and put in growing soil. put 1 - 3 seeds on he soil and make it slightly wet. keep it damp, but not wet. when it is too big for the growing pot move it to the 10l pot (don't forget to ensure holes in the bottom).

it might help if you use a little bit of tomato fertilizer.

hope this helps.

Re: From Spain to Germany, farmers warn of fresh food shortages

#337

Post by fock »

PeterisP wrote: post #290
baybal2 wrote: post #68

Coworkers in Shenzhen are already saying that more fancier foods are already getting scarcer in the inland China, and prices are going up by day. China has done a massive livestock slaughter campaign when the quarantine was declared. That has actually depressed the food prices quite a bit for the first months, but after that, the prices have shot up. This is how they got that much meat: https://mustsharenews.com/wp-c…

During the last 100 years Asia has seen a significant shift towards eating much more meat as their prosperity has increased, and that's very 'calorie inefficient'; if you have some chickens or a pig at a farm, then that's often a form of "recycling" various scrap; but factory farmed animals consume huge amounts of crops grown for them that have much more calories than the resulting meat/eggs/dairy/etc. If your daily…

concerning the seeds: does anyone know of any statistics, where the actual hybrid seed is produced, which is sown in the US and Europe? I heard India someday, which means we are in real trouble next summer...

Re: From Spain to Germany, farmers warn of fresh food shortages

#338

Post by Teever »

tomp wrote: post #328
baybal2 wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

China imports a gigantic amount of food, and ports were first to be hit by disruption . As a person who works in OEM electronics in China, I can tell at least that. So, at any normal day, China would've been eating 30-32% of world's food by value, while producing 20% of it by itself. Agriculture has been on shutdown for the past 2.5 months. Farms have slaughtered a large portion of their livestock, and a big portion…

> Agriculture has been on shutdown for the past 2.5 months. Can you explain that in more relevant terms? AFAIK agriculture has been shut down in the US for the past 2.5 months as well (actually more like past 5-6 months), simply because it's not the growing season. What are the different growing seasons in China, for different kinds of crops?

There is no single growing season in a country as vast as the United States. Hell, look at a state like California with a huge variety in latitude and altitude you can grow pretty much anything at any time in the year somewhere in California.

Re: From Spain to Germany, farmers warn of fresh food shortages

#339

Post by jsjddbbwj »

rusk wrote: post #321
neilwilson wrote: post #260

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With 3 million people in the UK still without work that want it - and many more laid off, redundant or self-employed without clients, the solution should be obvious. Pay a decent wage and you'll get the people. The era of cheap labour is over.

I don’t think English people want to do this kind of work ...

They don't want to do it because of the salary.

Re: From Spain to Germany, farmers warn of fresh food shortages

#340

Post by abootstrapper »

mellow2020 wrote: post #118
Zenst wrote: post #2

Hopefully this may incentivize people to be a bit more self-sufficient. Gardens that you grow your own, allotments - the mentality of that has been driven away over decades and now people are starting to smell the roses and realize they can't eat them. So in many avenues - complacency gets highlighted more and I'm sure many and much will change on the back of this period in time. Overall I'd say for the better. Certa…

> Certainly the environment is doing better, I wouldn't be so sure (yet) about the overall outcome. For example, the EPA just suspends enforcement of all environmental laws "because corona". https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/489753-epa-sus... > The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a sweeping suspension of its enforcement of environmental laws Thursday, telling companies they would not need to…

I really don’t get this. How is this helpful against the pandemic?
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