August 2016
Food Shortages & Immigrant Issues
Is Brexit Britain Facing 1916’s WW1 Problems?
Britain in the 1900s was far from self-sufficient when it came to food, relying on imports to provide 70% of its total consumption. Today the UK imports 40% of its food and this percentage has been steadily growing over the last decade. But with 25% of this coming from EU countries, what will happen now?
A hundred years ago, the war on the Somme was raging, which meant able-bodied men were away fighting. The agricultural industry had to rely on migrant labour, which included Belgian war refugees, Irish travellers and even German POWs. There was still a shortfall of labour and children as young as ten worked long days helping with every aspect of food production. With a question mark hanging over the UK’s itinerant work force since Brexit and many Brits not willing to work for agricultural wages, will children once again provide the backbone...
