Should we stop buying food from companies that ship..

downfader

..their entire production abroad and close down factories. It happened to HP, Terrys, now Twinings and Cadburys..?

I mean it ends up costing a fortune to "import" the food in once its gone, companies make massive profits from reduced labour costs and people are losing their jobs. :?

Views?

hammerite

It's a nice idea, but you'd spend so long researching where all your food comes from you'd probably end up starving. It's a massive tangled web.

The only way you'd manage is buying everything from a local farm shop that produce everything on site. But then you'd probably struggle to get really nice stuff like chocolate.

Stewie Griffin

I got a bottle of Daddies after HP production was moved to Holland only to find out that Daddies is made by HP in Holland :evil: .

nicensleazy

Chrous steel!

Stewie Griffin

nicensleazy wrote:

Chrous steel!

You are right, I wont get my next order from them

nolf

downfader wrote:

..their entire production abroad and close down factories. It happened to HP, Terrys, now Twinings and Cadburys..?

I mean it ends up costing a fortune to "import" the food in once its gone, companies make massive profits from reduced labour costs and people are losing their jobs. :?

Views?

I've got better things to do with my time than spend all day tracing food.

Anyway surely where the company is based matters the most. Where all the money ends up. Isn't where the production facility is based, inconsequential?

Crapaud

hammerite wrote:

It's a nice idea, but you'd spend so long researching where all your food comes from you'd probably end up starving. It's a massive tangled web. ...

If you were to do it yourself I'd agree. The most notable thing, for me anyway, about how the internet is changing the way society works is the speed that like minded people can get together, research a topic and organise themselves into a formidable campaigning force. Many hands make light work.

Look at the campaign to keep the X-Factor single of off number 1. An excellent example is the rise of Anonymous after the Scientology Cult tried to use copyright law to get the Tom Cruise 'we're the only ones who can help' video on You Tube taken down. Within 2 weeks they had thoroughly researched Scientology, attacked from cyberspace and organised worldwide IRL protests in every major city where the cult had a presence.

This kind of protest is becoming more common and I expect to see more of it in the coming years.

downfader

nolf wrote:

downfader wrote:

..their entire production abroad and close down factories. It happened to HP, Terrys, now Twinings and Cadburys..?

I mean it ends up costing a fortune to "import" the food in once its gone, companies make massive profits from reduced labour costs and people are losing their jobs. :?

Views?

I've got better things to do with my time than spend all day tracing food.

Anyway surely where the company is based matters the most. Where all the money ends up. Isn't where the production facility is based, inconsequential?

But the money doesnt end up here. It ends up, often abroad, in multinational companies. What is the point in a company being based here if everything else about it is overseas?

mrushton

There will be a financial advantage eg Govt. grants,some low tax scheme that keeps the jobs here

verylonglegs

Why have you singled out food? If its something you cared about that much would you not apply it to anything you buy?

blackpanther

surely not twinnings???????


A luverly cup af tea?

I blame Gordon bully boy brown.

Lagavulin

Not quite the same but I stopped buying Young's seafood when they started sending prawns caught in the UK to Thailand just to be de-shelled.

Bloody prawns getting more AirMiles than me.

rick_chasey

downfader wrote:

But the money doesnt end up here. It ends up, often abroad, in multinational companies. What is the point in a company being based here if everything else about it is overseas?

Multinationals have to keep their money somewhere.

Who cares where the money goes? We're all people, wherever you're from. Someone gets money down the line. And the free market distributes it as efficiently (i.e. cheapest) as possible.

nolf

downfader wrote:

nolf wrote:

downfader wrote:

..their entire production abroad and close down factories. It happened to HP, Terrys, now Twinings and Cadburys..?

I mean it ends up costing a fortune to "import" the food in once its gone, companies make massive profits from reduced labour costs and people are losing their jobs. :?

Views?

I've got better things to do with my time than spend all day tracing food.

Anyway surely where the company is based matters the most. Where all the money ends up. Isn't where the production facility is based, inconsequential?

But the money doesnt end up here. It ends up, often abroad, in multinational companies. What is the point in a company being based here if everything else about it is overseas?

Tax goes to UK govt.
Company deals in £ sterling,.
Hires staff in the Uk in central office/ancillary roles.

Many mutlinationals are based in the UK, a uk base can bias the company towards other uk based firms for contracts on various things.

Generally means you have a lot of capital flowing into, or at least through, London. Thats a good thing for the country as a whole.

Where the production facilities are don't really matter, 50 guys at £5 a day, is still less money for that country in pay packets than 1 middle ranking manager in a large multinational working in the Uk.

pneumatic

Hang on a minute. How many tea plantations are there in the UK, how many cocoa bean farms, spice groves, anchovy fisheries etc.?

Even the malt for our whisky is grown in Eastern Europe these days.

Many of these Great British foodstuffs originate in far away places to begin with so why not just put the tea into the bags close to where it is actually produced?

cougie

Sourcing is massively complicated.

I live close to Ellesmere Port where Vauxhall have a huge factory. Its emblazoned as 'the home of the astra'. So when we wanted a new car a few years back - we went for an astra. Ordered it from a garage thats about 2 miles away from the factory.

When the car arrived - it had been made in Germany. Clearly they have their good reasons why Germany is building right hand drive cars, but it seems a bit loopy to the outsider.

Jez mon

nolf wrote:

downfader wrote:

nolf wrote:

downfader wrote:

..their entire production abroad and close down factories. It happened to HP, Terrys, now Twinings and Cadburys..?

I mean it ends up costing a fortune to "import" the food in once its gone, companies make massive profits from reduced labour costs and people are losing their jobs. :?

Views?

I've got better things to do with my time than spend all day tracing food.

Anyway surely where the company is based matters the most. Where all the money ends up. Isn't where the production facility is based, inconsequential?

But the money doesnt end up here. It ends up, often abroad, in multinational companies. What is the point in a company being based here if everything else about it is overseas?

Tax goes to UK govt.
Company deals in £ sterling,.
Hires staff in the Uk in central office/ancillary roles.

Many mutlinationals are based in the UK, a uk base can bias the company towards other uk based firms for contracts on various things.

Generally means you have a lot of capital flowing into, or at least through, London. Thats a good thing for the country as a whole.

Where the production facilities are don't really matter, 50 guys at £5 a day, is still less money for that country in pay packets than 1 middle ranking manager in a large multinational working in the Uk.

£5 a day?

Lets say, non-skilled workforce of 50, working at £5 an hour...

Assuming a working week of about 40 hours that works out at

50 x 5 x 40 x 52 = 520 k

Which is a pretty high salary for a middle manager, not only that, but you've got 50 extra jobs which can only be a good thing for unemployment. Furthermore, those 50 guys aren't likely to be taking their money outside the country, whereas a manager earning 520k would be.

Compost

Tricky balance to get right - we may lose a few production jobs but the company might invest millions into developing countries, creating jobs, income and associated economic and social development there.

Make Poverty History (but only as long as it's not at the expense of a few jobs in the UK)!

skyd0g

Bhima isn't going to be happy...

downfader

nolf wrote:

downfader wrote:

nolf wrote:

downfader wrote:

..their entire production abroad and close down factories. It happened to HP, Terrys, now Twinings and Cadburys..?

I mean it ends up costing a fortune to "import" the food in once its gone, companies make massive profits from reduced labour costs and people are losing their jobs. :?

Views?

I've got better things to do with my time than spend all day tracing food.

Anyway surely where the company is based matters the most. Where all the money ends up. Isn't where the production facility is based, inconsequential?

But the money doesnt end up here. It ends up, often abroad, in multinational companies. What is the point in a company being based here if everything else about it is overseas?

Tax goes to UK govt.
Company deals in £ sterling,.
Hires staff in the Uk in central office/ancillary roles.

Many mutlinationals are based in the UK, a uk base can bias the company towards other uk based firms for contracts on various things.

Generally means you have a lot of capital flowing into, or at least through, London. Thats a good thing for the country as a whole.

Where the production facilities are don't really matter, 50 guys at £5 a day, is still less money for that country in pay packets than 1 middle ranking manager in a large multinational working in the Uk.

Tax may go to the government, but how exactly is that helping normal workers? They end up paying out more in dole money than they should need to.

Also why is everything so London-centric? Seriously, the center of the world aint London and its about time companies spread out a bit. I say f*** London

Oh and btw I'm not trying to suggest tea is grown here (neither is coco - thats grown in Africa and South America) I forget who posted the comment. I'm trying to suggest perhaps we need to start supporting British workforces, these things shouldnt be about profit. Food was simply an example that has been in the news recently.

rick_chasey

Economic nationalism only makes things worse as far as I am concerned.

skyd0g

Let's produce more food in the UK - we need to keep the Chinese cockle-pickers and Polish farm-workers in employment somehow.