From Watts Up With That?
Essay by Eric Worrall
“… Britain … reduced how many crops they have planted over the winter, … energy required to light and heat greenhouses and the cost of the fertiliser …”
Why are UK supermarkets facing fresh food shortages?
Three big retailers are placing limits on shoppers on some produce lines. What is behind the rationing?
Joanna Partridge and Sarah ButlerThu 23 Feb 2023 01.34 AEDT
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How big is the problem?
Morrisons has announced limits of two an item on packs of tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce and peppers, while Asda is restricting shoppers to three items each on eight fresh produce lines – including broccoli, cauliflower, raspberries and lettuces.
On Wednesday, Tesco and Aldi joined them, each limiting purchases of peppers, cucumbers and tomatoes to three packs a person.
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What is behind the shortages?
Certain fresh vegetables and fruits are hard to come by in the UK as a result of an unfortunate combination of poor weather reducing the harvest in Europe and north Africa, as well lower supplies from UK and Dutch producers hit by the jump in energy bills to heat glasshouses.
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Meanwhile, Britain and other northern European countries – particularly the Netherlands which is a big vegetable producer – have reduced how many crops they have planted over the winter, after the Ukraine war sent bills soaring for the energy required to light and heat greenhouses and the cost of the fertiliser used on plants.
…Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/feb/22/problem-shortage-fresh-food-uk-supermarkets
Who thinks Britain is ready for a climate friendly plant based diet, like the Guardian’s George Monbiot and other green radicals keep pushing, when supermarkets can’t even reliably supply the basics? There doesn’t seem to be much point pushing people to switch to a vegetable based diet, if nobody can buy any vegetables.
Of course, the Guardian blaming the Ukraine war for energy shortages a nonsensical copout. The root cause of the problem is the insane pursuit of Net Zero, and neglect of domestic British energy resources, which has exposed Britain to the geopolitical games of unreliable energy suppliers like Russia.
Putin simply supplied the final push, which toppled the rotten edifice of British and European energy policy.
Everything leads back to Britain’s lack of access to affordable energy.
Russia and Ukraine produced fertiliser and gas because they had lots of gas. They allowed their oil and gas fields to be developed.
Britain has large deposits of coal and frackable gas, but is suffering high energy costs and shortages, because British politicians refuse to allow significant domestic energy deposits to be developed. They refuse to allow fracking entrepreneurs like Caudrilla CEO Francis Egan to frack.
Britain is not alone in pursuing green energy insanity. The following video is Putin in 2010, laughing with an audience of supporters in Russia about the foolishness of German politicians, about how their energy policies were making Germany utterly dependent on Russia.
President Trump tried to warn Germany in particular against dependence on Russia, it was totally obvious to everyone Putin would one day use this dependency as a lever. The German delegation laughed at Trump, and the German political class ignored Trump’s warning.
Despite the utter failure to deliver energy stability, and the humiliation of Putin calling the shots on energy prices, the British and European political classes still haven’t learned their lesson. Even now, Britain and Europe’s energy policy, in my opinion, consists of trying to engineer regime change in Russia, so they can return to propping up their Net Zero fantasy with cheap imports of Russian gas.
Why else is Britain at the forefront of supporting arms for Ukraine, to such an extent they are jeopardising the British military’s own operational readiness? Idealism and sympathy for Ukraine might explain a level of support, but in my opinion the level of support Britain is providing goes well beyond a little help for a friend.
Perhaps I am reading too much into this. Perhaps the explanation for the radical depletion of Britain’s military inventory, is that the British political classes are as clueless about military operational readiness requirements as they are clueless about energy issues.
Whatever lunacy is running through the minds of British politicians, the British people are the only group who can force a resolution to the mess created by their political class. Write to your MP, and demand the restoration of affordable energy by any means available, including fracking.
British politicians created this disaster, through their ignorance, carelessness, ineptitude and conceited refusal to listen to advice, from friends and enemies alike. But even the dumbest British politician knows what a big sack of angry letters means.