{"id":13754,"date":"2017-10-18T14:14:36","date_gmt":"2017-10-18T13:14:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=13754"},"modified":"2017-10-18T14:14:36","modified_gmt":"2017-10-18T13:14:36","slug":"just-grow-food","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=13754","title":{"rendered":"Just ‘grow more food’?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Ministers need to stop misleading the public over the impact of a hard Brexit, Unite has said, after transport secretary Chris Grayling claimed farmers could simply grow more food if the UK crashes out of the EU and prices rocket.<\/p>\n

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In comments reminiscent of Second World War \u00e2\u20ac\u015bDig for Victory\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 propaganda, Brexiteer Grayling said if food prices rise due to the UK falling on\u00c2\u00a0devastating WTO rules\u00c2\u00a0the country could just increase its domestic yields and buy more produce from around the world.<\/p>\n

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He told the\u00c2\u00a0BBC, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bWhat that would mean would be that supermarkets bought more from home, that British farmers grew more and that they bought more from around the world.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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The National Farmers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Union said Grayling was \u00e2\u20ac\u015bout of touch with farmers\u00e2\u20ac\u0165, while the British Summer Fruits association dismissed his comments as \u00e2\u20ac\u015btripe\u00e2\u20ac\u0165.<\/p>\n

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Unite national officer for food, drink and agriculture (FDA) Julia Long said Grayling was essentially lying to the public about the damage a hard Brexit will do to the country\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s farming sector.<\/p>\n

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She said, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bI\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m flabbergasted at his comments. Farmers are saying they won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have enough people to work for them, let alone be able to grow more food. There are already major labour shortages and we haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even left the EU yet.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bMinisters have to stop making these kind of claims because people start believing them and they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re absolute rubbish. They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got to start being honest about what could happen.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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Long added, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bA hard Brexit would be incredibly damaging to the UK\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s farming sector and food security. Crashing out with no deal and landing on WTO tariffs means you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re looking at domestic price rises and increasing labour shortages as well as a sharp drop in exports to the EU \u00e2\u20ac\u201c which accounts for two thirds of the sector\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s overseas sales.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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Grayling\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s suggestion that the UK could just buy more food from \u00e2\u20ac\u015baround the world\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 in the event of a hard Brexit was also criticised by the union.<\/p>\n

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Chair of Unite\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s FDA national committee Steven Leniec pointed to lobbying by US farmers to open up UK markets after Brexit to produce banned in Europe.<\/p>\n

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He said, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bTory Brexiteers bang on about the potential for importing cheaper food after we leave the EU, but what they don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t mention is the lower standards used to make such food less expensive.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bDo we really want to see chlorinated chicken, hormone treated beef and genetically modified crops from the US here in Britain? Not only would it restrict trade with Europe, but it could also force UK farmers to lower their standards to compete.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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Labour\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s shadow Brexit minister Jenny Chapman said Grayling\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s comments were symptomatic of the government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s utter lack of preparedness and confusion over Brexit.<\/p>\n

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She said, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis is yet another example of the Tories\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 chaotic approach to the Brexit negotiations. Rather than planning for no deal, ministers appear to be telling us to dig for no deal.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bBritish farmers already work incredibly hard and to suggest that they could simply grow more food is ridiculous.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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Chapman added, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe truth is the biggest threat to Britain crashing out of Europe with no deal is Tory infighting. Ministers should stop fighting amongst themselves and start putting the national interest first.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThat means avoiding a cliff edge for our economy and agreeing strong transitional arrangements within the single market and a customs union.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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Ministers need to stop misleading the public over the impact of a hard Brexit, Unite has said, after transport secretary Chris Grayling claimed farmers could simply grow more food if the UK crashes out of the EU and prices rocket.     In comments reminiscent of Second World War \u00e2\u20ac\u015bDig for Victory\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 propaganda, Brexiteer Grayling […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1810,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[42,486,489,823,325],"wps_subtitle":"Tories misleading public over post-Brexit food prices","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13754"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13754"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13754\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13755,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13754\/revisions\/13755"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1810"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}