Farmers struggle to harvest supplies
Brown chairs urgent talks on crisis
Jamie Doward, home affairs
editor guardian.co.uk,
Saturday 9 January 2010 22.08 GMT
We have noted a great price
rise in Noodles, Macaroni, Spaghetti, # 10 cans of Baked
beans, Kidney beans, and Rice in the past year some of these items have risen
in cost 150%. We have arrived at a
brief respite so it is time for all Christians to stock up and fill their
pantries and shelves as much as possible with commonly used dry good, so that
they can ride the next wave of inflated food prices.
We have found a locking lid
system for 5 gallon buckets that can be used to store sugar, salt, flour, rice,
macaroni produces and avariety of other bulk dry goods.
http://www.pleasanthillgrain.com/plastic_bucket_5_gallon_buckets_6_container_gamma_lid_lids.aspx
Britons have been warned to brace
themselves for an increase in food prices as plunging
temperatures leave farmers unable to harvest vegetables and hauliers struggle
to distribute fresh produce.
Gordon Brown, who will
chair a meeting of the Cobra emergency committee early this week to discuss the
freeze, was today forced to reassure the country that it would not run out of
gas or grit for its roads during the coldest weather in 30 years.
Police confirmed today that the
weather-related death toll had risen to 26. A 90-year-old woman froze to death
in her garden near
Concerns have now switched to
food supply. Sub-zero temperatures have made it impossible to extract some
vegetables from the ground. Producers of brussels
sprouts and cabbages are all reporting problems with harvesting. Cauliflowers
are said to have turned to "mush" in the sustained frost, with the
result that only imported ones are available at more than £2 each.
"Food is selling fast and
there is a problem with replenishing it," said Stephen Alambritis of the
Federation of Small Businesses. "One business I spoke to said it was like
Christmas Eve, with people rushing to buy up food. This will inevitably have an
impact on food prices."
Food prices had already started
to edge up after a sustained period of low inflation. Food inflation increased
by 3.7% in December, up from 2.8% in November, said the British Retail
Consortium.
In
Meanwhile, greengrocers in some
of the worst-hit areas are reporting shortages, with the price of carrots and
parsnips reportedly rising by 30% in some small shops. A spokesman for the
National Farmers'
In a move that underscores the
severity of the situation, on Monday the government will permit an emergency
relaxation of European laws regulating the driving hours for hauliers involved
in the distribution of animal feed. Under the temporary rules, the hauliers
will be allowed to drive for 10 hours rather than the EU maximum of nine. There
will also be a reduction in their mandatory daily rest requirements, from 11 to
nine hours.
Today, the
prime minister insisted gas supplies were not running out, despite record
levels of demand. In a podcast from Downing Street, Brown said:
"I can assure you: supplies are not running out. We've got plenty of gas in
our own backyard the North Sea and we also have access to the large
reserves in
Last week, nearly 100 large
businesses were forced to stop using gas in an attempt to conserve supplies.
Brown also tried to allay
concerns over salt stocks. "Working with the suppliers and the highway
authorities, we are making sure stocks of salt to grit roads and pavements get
to where they're most needed," he said.
On Friday, a government emergency
planning committee met to discuss the
Further supplies are due to
arrive from
Edmund King, president of the AA,
said he had raised concerns about salt supplies before Christmas. "We were
not assured that everyone was as prepared as they should have been
and that's
why I wrote to the Local Government Association in November, prior to the cold
snap," King told the BBC. "There is more we could have done."