No deal: what’s going to happen to our food?

Beyond Today

BBC

News

4.6 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 7 August 2019

⏱️ 22 minutes

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Summary

Boris Johnson’s government is “turbo-charging” plans for leaving the EU without a deal at the end of October. People are asking each other if we’re going to have enough food, whether they should be stockpiling tins and if it’s going to cost more money. Companies are stockpiling ingredients and today supermarkets have asked the government to change the law so they can work together to stop stuff running out after 31 October. David Gregory-Kumar tells us lamb farmers are particularly worried that a new tariff on exports could lead to a mass cull of Brexit lambs. We also speak to Daniel Saladino about what fresh tomatoes tell us about the intricate food system we’ve built, and in what way we rely on Europe for the sunshine, the labour and even the bees that fertilise our food.

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, music radio podcasts.
0:06.6	Hello, I'm Matthew Price. This is Beyond Today from BBC Radio 4.
0:10.9	Every day we ask one big question about one big story.
0:14.0	Today if we get no deal Brexit,
0:20.0	today if we get no deal Brexit what's going to happen to our food?
0:27.0	Can you believe we've actually got to the point where people are seriously asking each
0:36.6	other if we're going to have enough food when we leave the EU?
0:40.0	The supermarkets have even asked the government today to change the law so that they can work together to stop stuff running out.
0:47.0	We're not going to get into the detail of the politics here about what a no deal actually is.
0:52.0	We're going to do some of that tomorrow. Today we wanted to
0:54.7	focus on the uncertainty. Maybe you've seen people talking about dominoes for
0:59.2	instance stockpiling pizza toppings. Well I've done two interviews today. One's about lamb.
1:10.0	The others about tomatoes. The others about tomatoes, Nico?
1:15.0	Couldn't find a sound of a tomato in the library.
1:19.0	And these interviews show us how complex our food system is and why changing the system is also going to be really complex.
1:27.0	At the moment the way we import and export our food works without us really noticing it,
1:32.0	but if we leave the EU without an agreement with Europe, without a deal,
1:36.0	we don't automatically get to freely buy and sell in the European market.
1:40.0	And that's going to change things for all of us.
1:42.0	Among the worst hit could be
1:44.7	lamb farmers because if we get no deal lamb faces a tariff of 40% on sales to
1:51.0	Europe. David Gregory Kumar is the Science Environment and Rural Affairs Correspondent in Birmingham for the BBC.
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