Food poverty-the way out

[reohn2]

Well of course it is. What are you implying? If that all you have you would no doubt be going to the food bank.

Al

Do you find that an acceptable way for citizens of the fifth or is it the sixth richest country in the world to have to live in 2022?

Of course not. We spend at least a couple of hours every week amongst people scraping an existence. We are well aware and we do our best to help. If all the whingers did the same thing Britain would be a better place.

Al

You're not alone in helping the poor and needy.

The point I was making is that such a dire state of affairs is normality for many people in 2022 UK,you seemed to be accepting of that.
As for the "whingers" as you call them,they do have a point in their whinging due to the country being so badly run for over a decade,as to have left politics and politicians with such disgust and disrespect amoung the electorate because of that mismanagement.

[reohn2]

Having a bit of experience teaching and encouraging folk to become entrepreneurs not everyone has it in them I guess. Farmers lives often appear exhausting and adding in more work is no doubt very daunting.

Al

We can't all be entrepreneurs as we can't all be celebrities and solid hard working people shouldn't be penalised for being solid hard working people,but sadly it's becoming the norm for many and spreading,that such ordinary solid hard work folk are constantly and consistantly being ground down,so much so they need to rely on hand outs at foodbanks by the attitude and mismanagement of the country by successive Tory governments.

Need we revisit the effects of Brexit and it's total disaster on the country,sold by the current PM and ministers as the best thing since sliced bread?

[Pebble]

Well of course it is. What are you implying? If that all you have you would no doubt be going to the food bank.

Al

Do you find that an acceptable way for citizens of the fifth or is it the sixth richest country in the world to have to live in 2022?

Problems with food banks is people can squander all their money away on nonsense knowing there is a food bank to fall back to. Needing to use a food bank in many / most cases will be down to a total mismanagement of money rather than the lack of it. Should food vouches be an element of the benefit system. Eating well and healthily is not expensive,

[simonineaston]

Need we revisit the effects of Brexit and it's total disaster on the country,sold by the current PM and ministers as the best thing since sliced bread?

As far as I recall, there were several serious attempts to challenge the move to sign article 50 in court, however to no avail.
I'd love it if some entrprising lawyer could come up with a way of prosecuting a case based on the failure of the gov. of the day to ensure that the country thrives. Qualified financial commentators are beginning to state openly that Brexit was and will continue to be a complete disaster for the country and its businesses.
There's an idea that what Brext was actually all about was to defend the dubious arrangements in place that aid and abet off shore investments (worth BILLIONS) and to save them from the proposed EU tax reforms... I'm sure Rees-Mogg could help flesh out the detail on this issue for us, if we asked nicely.

[Mick F]

Update on the lamb steaks.
I ate them both. Mrs Mick F is away, so it's only me cooking for me. She comes back this weekend having been in The Gambia since 1st March.

They were about half an inch thick at the middles, tapering off round the edges. They were yummy!
I grilled them, and ate them with spuds, fresh green beans and a big carrot all done in our pressure cooker.

I wish I'd photographed them!

[al_yrpal]

Yes Mick, the lamb chops were a bit of a treat from the family butcher and weighed 525g. But, I would expect that Lidls pork chops would cost roughly half what you paid. We usually shop at Aldi but occasionally shop at the butcher because his stuff is so nice. I would be interested to know why there is such a price difference. Is it because of the number of hands lamb passes through or a more legitimate reason?

Al

Your chops were £15.92 Kg
Mick's were £15.45 Kg
On the face of it not a lot of difference.
You bought four which individually weighed approx 130g including bone so something like <100g of meat.
Mick bought two weighing approx 150g each and described as steaks so no bone.
That’s now making Mick's look a lot cheaper.
Except from the size of your chops we can guess they were from a medium sized lamb. A lamb costing more /Kg than a heavy lamb.
We don’t know how thick Mick's are but we can guess if you put all the steaks back together they will make a leg far bigger than most buyers want. Hence sold as steaks. Bigger lambs cost less / Kg to buy.

Yes supermarkets have bigger buying powers than an individual butcher but the cost of transport, slaughtering, and butchering is very similar for them both. Often the biggest difference is they start off with a different resource.

Can you explain why pork is half the price of lamb? Porkers are usually factory farmed, but lambs are reared outdoors and possibly healthier meat?

Al

[Paulatic]

Can you explain why pork is half the price of lamb? Porkers are usually factory farmed, but lambs are reared outdoors and possibly healthier meat?

Al

A few things spring to mind.
Gestation period of a pig 3 months 3 weeks 3 days. Capable of breeding twice a year
Sheep gestation 147 days (21weeks) capable, unless Dorset Horn, of breeding once / yr
A sow therefore is producing 20 piglets a year
A ewe at very best will give 2 lambs a year.
Pigs on the whole are kept intensively and you only need a small patch of ground. Even outdoors there could be ten sows / acre that’s 200 piglets/ acre
Sheep you’ll need a large acreage for grazing and forage. Six lambs / acre perhaps but on hill ground that could be less than one lamb/ acre.
A sow kept well will probably give you 5 productive years (100 piglets)
A ewe might also last 5 years (10 lambs if you’re lucky)
Pigs are more efficient in converting food into meat. 3:1 conversion ratio. Lambs 3.5:1

It’s these quicker returns on investment which in my lifetime I’ve seen boom and bust over and over.

[simonineaston]

I'm not sure how this all pans out, with things as they are at the mo'...

Food and energy billionaires $453bn richer than two years ago, finds Oxfam

[al_yrpal]

Thanks

Al

[simonineaston]

The more I try to find out about the galloping inflation we're all dealing with, the more confused I get - see below chart of wholesale gas prices! I know that retail (?) prices aren't based on daily fluctuations, but it's not a good look for energy suppliers busily hiking prices like there's no tomorrow and making record profits and busily charging us to cover the costs of the companies that went bust last autumn and who still pay their ceos colossal salaries... see here

particularly low today!

[Carlton green]

Well of course it is. What are you implying? If that all you have you would no doubt be going to the food bank.

Al

Do you find that an acceptable way for citizens of the fifth or is it the sixth richest country in the world to have to live in 2022?

Problems with food banks is people can squander all their money away on nonsense knowing there is a food bank to fall back to. Needing to use a food bank in many / most cases will be down to a total mismanagement of money rather than the lack of it. Should food vouches be an element of the benefit system. Eating well and healthily is not expensive,

I wonder what would cause anyone to be so judgemental, for want of a better explanation I’ll go for reading too many copies of the Daily Mail. We all hear about the dreadful poor - it sells newspapers and TV programs- but we hear very little about the dreadful rich who’s tax evasion and aggressive avoidance is what we really should be focussing our attention on.

[Mike Sales]

I wonder what would cause anyone to be so judgemental, for want of a better explanation I’ll go for reading too many copies of the Daily Mail. We all hear about the dreadful poor - it sells newspapers and TV programs- but we hear very little about the dreadful rich who’s tax evasion and aggressive avoidance is what we really should be focussing our attention on.

The idea of the "undeserving poor" was Victorian.
I seem to remember that G.B.S's Alfred Doolittle was proud to be of this class.
Perhaps I should add that he is character in Pygmalion and My Fair Lady.

[simonineaston]

but we hear very little about the dreadful rich who’s tax evasion and aggressive avoidance is what we really should be focussing our attention on.

to be fair, I will bang on about that whenever I get a chance ! What is more puzzling is why it doesn't receive more maintream coverage.

[reohn2]

Well of course it is. What are you implying? If that all you have you would no doubt be going to the food bank.

Al

Do you find that an acceptable way for citizens of the fifth or is it the sixth richest country in the world to have to live in 2022?

Problems with food banks is people can squander all their money away on nonsense knowing there is a food bank to fall back to. Needing to use a food bank in many / most cases will be down to a total mismanagement of money rather than the lack of it.

Oh really?
And your evidence for that is where?
I'd appreciate some proof and a link.
That said there'll no doubt be some slinging the lead,but overall people have a bit more pride and honour than you give them credit for,they're not all politicians!

Should food vouches be an element of the benefit system

Would that not be open to abuse like money is?
There are people in full time work using food banks,though you'd probably claim they can't manage their own budget.
People can't win with a loosing hand,if it's not one thing it'll be something else according to some people!

Eating well and healthily is not expensive,

Everything's expensive when you don't have enough money.
And as I and others have pointed out up thread it's not just food costs that have risen,it's also rent,electric,gas,council tax,child care,etc,it's what's left after all the other bills are paid out that's the problem.

Or is it that the poor are just undeserving?

[reohn2]

Need we revisit the effects of Brexit and it's total disaster on the country,sold by the current PM and ministers as the best thing since sliced bread?

As far as I recall, there were several serious attempts to challenge the move to sign article 50 in court, however to no avail.
I'd love it if some entrprising lawyer could come up with a way of prosecuting a case based on the failure of the gov. of the day to ensure that the country thrives. Qualified financial commentators are beginning to state openly that Brexit was and will continue to be a complete disaster for the country and its businesses.
There's an idea that what Brext was actually all about was to defend the dubious arrangements in place that aid and abet off shore investments (worth BILLIONS) and to save them from the proposed EU tax reforms... I'm sure Rees-Mogg could help flesh out the detail on this issue for us, if we asked nicely.

Yer not wrong!