I don't like living in England....

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al_yrpal
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Re: I don't like living in England....

Post by al_yrpal »

Funny, but green peppers seem to vanish now and again replaced by orange or yellow ones? I try to buy African fruit and veg whenever I can and avoid EU stuff. I believe Africa needs our trade more. Aldi are pretty good selling lots of British foods, the alternative Sainsburys less so IME. Not noticed shortages of anything.

Al
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Oldjohnw
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Re: I don't like living in England....

Post by Oldjohnw »

The EU clearly has this reputation of trying to poison us all with their stuff.
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Re: I don't like living in England....

Post by ClappedOut »

Gone off Lidl since there in store points system, to me just like the Amazon prime hook of £7.99 month stops you shopping around.
Club card price v non club card price in tescos= just another reason to shop at Aldi
Hardly ever shop on Amazon as the £79 plus a year tax seems pointless when EBay faster and cheaper in small amounts I buy.

Amazon seem to have gone from brands to off brand dubious products.

Tried Banggood a few times and the stuff came from U.K. warehouse.

Points,club cards, tracked (Facebook) etc all meta data I find Invasive- cash is great as no data trail, so I go as far as a cash machine and pay cash in shops when I can.
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661-Pete
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Re: I don't like living in England....

Post by 661-Pete »

al_yrpal wrote: 15 May 2021, 10:34amI try to buy African fruit and veg whenever I can and avoid EU stuff. I believe Africa needs our trade more.
Sounds a lot like an EU boycott. I didn't think that was the ultimate objective of even the most fervent Brex*iteers! As to African produce - I agree, just so long as subsistence farmers on the breadline aren't losing their land and water to industrial cash crops for Western supermarkets.
Riverford (our weekly box supplier) supply much EU produce, but very little from Africa - and definitely nothing that's been airfreighted (a matter of policy). Should we be encouraging organic suppliers like them to branch out more into Africa?
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al_yrpal
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Re: I don't like living in England....

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Since visiting Egypt, Kenya, South Africa, Namibia and Morocco and seeing what little people have in these countries I have tried to buy fruit and Veg from them. I dont see why we cant produce the tasteless fruit and veg you get from the Netherlands ourselves? I love the rich tasting tomatos one gets from Italy and buy lots in tins, very nice Olive Oils too. Greek Feta is lovely and so are Spanish Peppers. We cook with British Rapeseed oil which is marked as simply Vegetable Oil in UK supermarkets...read the label, its the best cooking oil you can buy. Far from boycotting EU produce I am just being a discriminating shopper and enjoy a nice Bratwurst as well as the next man! I enjoy South American Wines in preference to overpriced French stuff. The French need to eschew tradition and up their game. Estevez Chilean Pinot Noir 13% £3.95 from Aldis bottom shelf - brilliant.

Al
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Stevek76
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Re: I don't like living in England....

Post by Stevek76 »

661-Pete wrote: 15 May 2021, 9:45am Having said that, I must admit I was banned from two different Flat Earth Society forums for going - yes! - going off topic. Ah well - it's the Flat-Earthers after all. There's no reasoning with them.
Were you starting a flat Mars movement? :D
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661-Pete
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Re: I don't like living in England....

Post by 661-Pete »

Stevek76 wrote: 15 May 2021, 1:43pm Were you starting a flat Mars movement? :D
You mean the one where I dropped a chocolate bar in the street and a steamroller went over it? :lol: :lol: :lol:

No - seriously, I can't remember. Both the forums in question have a section called Angry Ranting where you can do - just that - i.e. call the Flat-Earthers any kind of ********s you can think of. I think one of my mistakes may have been expressing my doubts as to whether the Earth really is flat, in a section of the forum reserved for True Believers. I should have posted in Angry Ranting of course...
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661-Pete
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Re: I don't like living in England....

Post by 661-Pete »

al_yrpal wrote: 15 May 2021, 12:33pmI dont see why we cant produce the tasteless fruit and veg you get from the Netherlands ourselves?
You're right about some Netherlands stuff. We get tasty veg. in our Riverford box - some of it brought in by lorry from Europe. Riverford's argument is, to get, say, tomatoes and peppers early in the season, there's less of a carbon footprint trucking it from warm parts of France or Spain, than growing in chilly Britain in heated greenhouses or polytunnels. But I understand your point.
al_yrpal wrote: 15 May 2021, 12:33pmFar from boycotting EU produce I am just being a discriminating shopper ...
Fair enough. I was merely pointing out that your earlier post suggested a boycott.
Suppose that this room is a lift. The support breaks and down we go with ever-increasing velocity.
Let us pass the time by performing physical experiments...
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Cyril Haearn
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Re: I don't like living in England....

Post by Cyril Haearn »

No need to boycott the EU, lots of exotic vegetables are produced in the UK, using waste heat for example :wink:
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Tangled Metal
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Re: I don't like living in England....

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Your UK based veg box supplier imports from the EU instead of using seasonal UK veg? Or have I got that wrong?

It's just that our local veg box supplies all UK stuff. I thought that was the whole point of those suppliers.
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Re: I don't like living in England....

Post by Ben@Forest »

661-Pete wrote: 15 May 2021, 11:52amAs to African produce - I agree, just so long as subsistence farmers on the breadline aren't losing their land and water to industrial cash crops for Western supermarkets.
Riverford (our weekly box supplier) supply much EU produce, but very little from Africa - and definitely nothing that's been airfreighted (a matter of policy). Should we be encouraging organic suppliers like them to branch out more into Africa?
There are always competing reasons for/against. I've told this story before here before but... 20 odd years ago l went on a course about sustainable sourcing of timber (really timber imports though the same applies to domestic). A buyer for M&S was on the same course. We got talking about cash crops from Africa (green beans and so on).

My concern was about growing and air freighting such items for rich westerners, but her take was they did business with women's co-operatives who build primary schools and the like with the profits and for every green campaigner lobbying M&S was another campaigner lobbying about poverty and education.
Oldjohnw
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Re: I don't like living in England....

Post by Oldjohnw »

Anyone know where I can get UK grown bananas?
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661-Pete
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Re: I don't like living in England....

Post by 661-Pete »

Tangled Metal wrote: 15 May 2021, 3:51pm Your UK based veg box supplier imports from the EU instead of using seasonal UK veg? Or have I got that wrong?

It's just that our local veg box supplies all UK stuff. I thought that was the whole point of those suppliers.
You've got it almost right. They supply imports from the EU as well as seasonal UK veg.

The point being, as I already said, that they claim it's more energy efficient growing veg in the open, or under unheated polytunnels, and shipping it by lorry to UK, than growing same veg. in UK under heated polytunnels. The lorry journey emits less CO2 than the heaters.

I have no reason to doubt that claim - they've done the arithmetic!
Suppose that this room is a lift. The support breaks and down we go with ever-increasing velocity.
Let us pass the time by performing physical experiments...
--- Arthur Eddington (creator of the Eddington Number).
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al_yrpal
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Re: I don't like living in England....

Post by al_yrpal »

With our new garden, a new veg patch and a new lean to greenhouse against a brick wall next year I will be growing enough to feed us most of the time. But I do like fresh salad veg in the winter.

Al
Reuse, recycle, thus do your bit to save the planet.... Get stuff at auctions, Dump, Charity Shops, Facebook Marketplace, Ebay, Car Boots. Choose an Old House, and a Banger ..... And cycle as often as you can......
Ben@Forest
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Re: I don't like living in England....

Post by Ben@Forest »

661-Pete wrote: 15 May 2021, 4:28pm You've got it almost right. They supply imports from the EU as well as seasonal UK veg.

The point being, as I already said, that they claim it's more energy efficient growing veg in the open, or under unheated polytunnels, and shipping it by lorry to UK, than growing same veg. in UK under heated polytunnels. The lorry journey emits less CO2 than the heaters.

I have no reason to doubt that claim - they've done the arithmetic!
Though it's true some studies have concluded that growing salad crops in Spain requires less energy it's also the case that the widespread growing of salad crops both under plastic and in soil in southern Spain have caused huge environmental problems through the abstraction of water, they are even having to use desalinated seawater - and that's not a problem which is going to improve. Not only that but the Spanish allow more pesticides to be applied than here in UK. Photo shows Campo de Dalías satellite image and its "plastic sea" formed by greenhouses.

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