Wednesday, November 17, 2021

Not sure I trust the Poles with the care of turkeys

I see that England is doing so well under Brexit that they can't even raise enough turkeys for Christmas:

 

A news item from last month explains:

Millions of British Christmas dinners are to be saved by turkeys imported from Poland and France after UK farmers were forced to slash production because of fears of labour shortages. UK supermarkets and restaurants will have to import hundreds of thousands of the birds from the EU for Christmas after British farmers reared at least 1m fewer birds, the poultry industry has warned. 

Richard Griffiths, chief executive of the British Poultry Council, said big turkey producers belonging to the group had slashed production by about a fifth this year after Brexit cut off their supply of cheap labour. These producers normally rear about 5.5m of 8m to 9m turkeys consumed at Christmas annually, he said.

Imported turkeys would likely come from Poland and France, said Paul Kelly of the KellyBronze free range turkey farm in Essex. “The supermarkets have supported British turkey over the past 15 years and we have been able to supply 100 per cent [of the demand],” he said. “Now we will be forced into buying turkeys from the EU.”

But also - it doesn't look from the video that the Poles are particularly good at raising turkeys in humane conditions.   Maybe they are only temporarily crammed to virtually standing room only?   I hope so...

1 comment:

GMB said...

Yes its disgraceful. Permaculture is the answer.