So, what did I learn this week?
I learnt that we might be short of parsnips for Christmas. It is due to inclement weather at planting time and through the growing stages. Or, in other words, all year. This is a refreshing change from it being the fault of Covid or the war in Ukraine. I also learnt that glasshouse producers are shutting down production because they can’t afford to heat and light the crops. If I was producing something that needed lots of electricity I like to think that I would have solar power or a windmill by now. Half of me says that if they haven’t already thought of that they deserve to go out of business, so they probably did. You have to wonder if this has more to do with restricting supply to make the supermarkets pay more. I’m ambivalent on that.
I like cheap food and I like the ability to buy food out of season. I also like being able to eat tomatoes and cucumber with my lunch, as it cuts down on bread and gives me a selection of nutrients. On the other hand, I could eat carrot sticks. Or eat less. Supermarkets do take the mickey when they are buying from farmers and I would like to have a planet left to leave to my kids. If this means cutting down on hothouse crops, going seasonal and paying more for food then it’s a price worth paying.
Vegetables – Carsington Water
I also found out that in the UK we are losing food due to labour shortages. I may get a bit political from here. I voted to stay in the EU. It isn’t perfect, but I think life inside the EU is marginally better than life outside it. Most of this can’t be quantified, but food lost by labour shortages can be.
I’m also intrigued by the fact that we have more job vacancies in the UK than we have unemployed people. I’m sure there will never be a perfect solution but it does strike me that we could improve on the way we are doing things now. The trouble is that if you have vacancies for rocket scientists and are only capable of educating social media influencers there will always be a mismatch. On the other hand, if you need people to work in fields picking fruit and veg, even a social media influencer should have the brain cells for that. They may not have the motivation, but being paid piecework will sort that out.
Also, as a radical solution, if people have the drive to travel half-way round the world and cross the Channel in a rubber boat, they would probably welcome the chance to work. We could even set up an exchange system. We will take refugees and export social media influencers. I know which I’d rather have. Scripted reality TV shows may find itself a little short of self-publicising airheads but that’s one labour shortage I’d be happy to see. I loved the Gary Oldman quote inn that link, describing reality TV as “the museum of social decay”. Oh yes!
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We have labor shortages here too- I just read an article about the things companies are doing to keep workers…
I always assumed that you had a massive pool of willing workers who have to be kept out with a fence . . .
Work is a four letter word
🙂
I favour going seasonal – we can’t expect to continue our privileged lifestyle – and would that be such a hardship?
Not at all – I used to look forward to winter because I like sprouts and root veg – not so much fun if it is all year round.
We have similar problems here, Quercus, and we can’t even blame Brexit. It seems stupidity needs no excuse.
One day the world will sort itself out. Probably. 🙂
One can hope.
We will. Be Pollyanna Positive!
I sure hope so.
🙂
We live in interesting times, for sure. Affordable housing and adequate pay for workers is a problem that is not getting any better over here. We are all going to have to get creative in the years ahead.
Yes, but creativity and politics don’t always coincide. I am going to develop a raised bed, no dig, automatic watering system for growing baby parsnips. After that I may move on to research a cure for stupidity. Before you ask, yes, I will try it out on myself first. 🙂
You are right, creativity and politics don’t always coincide. 🙂 Let me know how your parsnip experiment works. 🙂
Yes, not allowing asylum seekers to work while they are being processed (which seems to take years) does look like a classic case of self foot shooting. We can’t take relatives out for a meal at a favourite local hotel here because they can’t get staff. One of the problems of the mismatch between vacant jobs and hopeful jobseekers is that there is often nowhere for them to live if they need to move to get a job. In the good old days, you could always rent somewhere cheap.
I’m sure they could find somewhere if they wanted to rent a holiday cottage or an Air BnB. More of a problem if you live somewhere scenic, I expect. Round here we don’t have too many people wanting to spend a nice relaxing week . . .