Panic buying, hoarding

[kwackers]

Here's a thing.

As the need to harvest our food crops approaches:
Who's gonna do it? We were struggling to attract enough Johnny Foreigners before, this year there'll be none.

If the lockdown is still in place to any real degree and there's even a hint that some foods are going to be in short supply because there are zero people to harvest them...

[Mike Sales]

Here's a thing.

As the need to harvest our food crops approaches:
Who's gonna do it? We were struggling to attract enough Johnny Foreigners before, this year there'll be none.

If the lockdown is still in place to any real degree and there's even a hint that some foods are going to be in short supply because there are zero people to harvest them...

The field next to me has just been planted with some sort of brassica (I think), so I will be able to duck through the hedge...,Jack.

[mercalia]

so this is where all the hoarded food is?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-derbyshire-52084653

[RickH]

Here's a thing.

As the need to harvest our food crops approaches:
Who's gonna do it? We were struggling to attract enough Johnny Foreigners before, this year there'll be none.

If the lockdown is still in place to any real degree and there's even a hint that some foods are going to be in short supply because there are zero people to harvest them...

If anyone is at a loose end they are recruiting workers

FEED THE NATION

Due to the current Coronavirus pandemic, UK farms have a shortage of seasonal labour to help pick and pack fruit and vegetables. We are calling for British workers to apply for these paid positions on local farms across the UK. We are working with as part of the UK’s Alliance of Ethical Labour Providers.

[Mike Sales]

If anyone is at a loose end they are recruiting workers

FEED THE NATION

Due to the current Coronavirus pandemic, UK farms have a shortage of seasonal labour to help pick and pack fruit and vegetables. We are calling for British workers to apply for these paid positions on local farms across the UK. We are working with as part of the UK’s Alliance of Ethical Labour Providers.

I hope that the "ethical labour provided" is decently paid. Field work is hard, and often in hard conditions. I believe the Americans call it "stoop labour". This is because one's back is so much bent. I have done this sort of work, as a teenager when my piecework wage was pocket money. The adult women working alongside me were so much faster than me, as they had to be, to make it worth their time.
I can understand why people are reluctant to work so hard for so little money unless the alternative is even worse.

[PH]

Field work is hard, and often in hard conditions. I believe the Americans call it "stoop labour". This is because one's back is so much bent. I have done this sort of work, as a teenager when my piecework wage was pocket money. The adult women working alongside me were so much faster than me, as they had to be, to make it worth their time..

I've done a bit and don't rule out doing so again. Much of the soft fruit is no longer grown on the ground but on raised beds, so not the stooping it may have been when you were a teenager. it's also now largely a wage and productivity bonus, you don't last long if you're not productive enough.
I hear different things about working conditions and rates, so I don't really know how it is now. Twenty years ago when I last did any, you could earn £50 a day which was good if you got six days work, but poor if you only got two and it was that inconsistency that made it hard to earn a living. OTOH I've had years where eight months work provided a years income.
I've picked - Hops, strawberries, raspberries, pears, asparagus, sprouts, swedes, grapes in France and one field of potatoes the old fashioned way.

[carpetcleaner]

Here's a thing.

As the need to harvest our food crops approaches:
Who's gonna do it? We were struggling to attract enough Johnny Foreigners before, this year there'll be none.

If the lockdown is still in place to any real degree and there's even a hint that some foods are going to be in short supply because there are zero people to harvest them...

Nobody available? What about all the workers sat at home because their workplaces have closed? The government could require them to work in the fields in order to get their 80% of wages. If they decline the work, its job seekers allowance.

When lots of non-essential businesses are shut the one thing we are not short of is labour for essential work like harvesting crops.

[mercalia]

Here's a thing.

As the need to harvest our food crops approaches:
Who's gonna do it? We were struggling to attract enough Johnny Foreigners before, this year there'll be none.

If the lockdown is still in place to any real degree and there's even a hint that some foods are going to be in short supply because there are zero people to harvest them...

Nobody available? What about all the workers sat at home because their workplaces have closed? The government could require them to work in the fields in order to get their 80% of wages. If they decline the work, its job seekers allowance.

When lots of non-essential businesses are shut the one thing we are not short of is labour for essential work like harvesting crops.

cant see a weedy pen pusher out in the fields?

[Mike Sales]

Field work is hard, and often in hard conditions. I believe the Americans call it "stoop labour". This is because one's back is so much bent. I have done this sort of work, as a teenager when my piecework wage was pocket money. The adult women working alongside me were so much faster than me, as they had to be, to make it worth their time..

I've done a bit and don't rule out doing so again. Much of the soft fruit is no longer grown on the ground but on raised beds, so not the stooping it may have been when you were a teenager. it's also now largely a wage and productivity bonus, you don't last long if you're not productive enough.
I hear different things about working conditions and rates, so I don't really know how it is now. Twenty years ago when I last did any, you could earn £50 a day which was good if you got six days work, but poor if you only got two and it was that inconsistency that made it hard to earn a living. OTOH I've had years where eight months work provided a years income.
I've picked - Hops, strawberries, raspberries, pears, asparagus, sprouts, swedes, grapes in France and one field of potatoes the old fashioned way.

I don't see many raised beds round our way.
Is productivity bonus another name for piece work, you only make enough by continuous, dextrous hard work?
I wonder why Fenlanders were prepared to do the work I remember then, but not now? why do Balts have to be imported?
At least they are now provided with hiviz and portable privies!
One of my mental images of the Fens is of a distant row of <buttocks> across a huge flat field.

[carpetcleaner]

Here's a thing.

As the need to harvest our food crops approaches:
Who's gonna do it? We were struggling to attract enough Johnny Foreigners before, this year there'll be none.

If the lockdown is still in place to any real degree and there's even a hint that some foods are going to be in short supply because there are zero people to harvest them...

Nobody available? What about all the workers sat at home because their workplaces have closed? The government could require them to work in the fields in order to get their 80% of wages. If they decline the work, its job seekers allowance.

When lots of non-essential businesses are shut the one thing we are not short of is labour for essential work like harvesting crops.

cant see a weedy pen pusher out in the fields?

They'll get used to it if they need the money. Nobody ever picked crops as a career choice.

[PH]

I don't see many raised beds round our way.

I've seen a few driving through Kent, though what percentage I wouldn't know. This is the recruitment site I've been looking at, which says
What kind of work will I be doing?
Fruit picking – working outside in the fields, picking fruit such as strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, blueberries or cherries. Picking is now mostly performed standing up so you stand at a trolley and pick the fruit into punnets rather than bending down.

https://www.britishsummerfruits.co.uk/jobs

Is productivity bonus another name for piece work, you only make enough by continuous, dextrous hard work?

No, it's a hybrid scheme, a basic hourly rate, then bonuses on top for whatever they deem appropriate, volume being one thing, but there are others.
In the 80's and 90's it was all piece work and a lot of it was done by travelers, sometimes three generations working together, it would be a decent family income.

[661-Pete]

I'm not sure I'm fit enough, but if there really was no-one else, I could volunteer I suppose. But I don't need the money, Mrs P and I still have our pensions. I wouldn't want to take the job from someone in real financial need.

I think it best I don't put myself up...

[Mike Sales]

I don't see many raised beds round our way.

I've seen a few driving through Kent, though what percentage I wouldn't know. This is the recruitment site I've been looking at, which says
What kind of work will I be doing?
Fruit picking – working outside in the fields, picking fruit such as strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, blueberries or cherries. Picking is now mostly performed standing up so you stand at a trolley and pick the fruit into punnets rather than bending down.

https://www.britishsummerfruits.co.uk/jobs

Is productivity bonus another name for piece work, you only make enough by continuous, dextrous hard work?

No, it's a hybrid scheme, a basic hourly rate, then bonuses on top for whatever they deem appropriate, volume being one thing, but there are others.
In the 80's and 90's it was all piece work and a lot of it was done by travelers, sometimes three generations working together, it would be a decent family income.

There are clearly some changes.
The balance between basic and bonus must be crucial.
These days whole families don't have to work to make a family income. Children and young people are usually in education. Where children work in third world countries it is not seen to be good.
It seems that for some reason that people must have become lazier since I was a lad! Or less prepared to do this work for the money offered.

[fullupandslowingdown]

I hope that the "ethical labour provided" is decently paid. Field work is hard, and often in hard conditions. I believe the Americans call it "stoop labour". This is because one's back is so much bent. I have done this sort of work, as a teenager when my piecework wage was pocket money. The adult women working alongside me were so much faster than me, as they had to be, to make it worth their time.
I can understand why people are reluctant to work so hard for so little money unless the alternative is even worse.

You will be at least paid minimum wage

https://www.concordia.org.uk/feed-the-nation/

Is it just me that finds that type of statement somewhat, well, actually very annoying. Everyone is entitled to NMW rates, even the self employed (not that businesses employing the self employed seem to think so) So for a company boasting it's paying at least the bare legal minimum, smacks of condescension or worse - look at us, we're paying you money for working, aren't we good people. You usually only get bonuses on top if you are faster than the average bunny.

Maybe people claiming the super enhanced unemployment benefit a.k.a the covid-19 furlough pay, should indeed be asked to work in the fields. Then they'll get a wider understanding of the world around them, and how the other half live, or try to live.

[Bonefishblues]

Nobody available? What about all the workers sat at home because their workplaces have closed? The government could require them to work in the fields in order to get their 80% of wages. If they decline the work, its job seekers allowance.

When lots of non-essential businesses are shut the one thing we are not short of is labour for essential work like harvesting crops.

cant see a weedy pen pusher out in the fields?

They'll get used to it if they need the money. Nobody ever picked crops as a career choice.

There you go again. What was it last time, shop work iirc?

You patronise effortlessly. For some it may be exactly that, and they may be proud to do it to the highest standard of their ability.