‘Worst we’ve known’: UK turns to imports as drought and heat hit vegetable crops

Yorumlar

• u/Portalrules123·1·1 Ağu 2026 17:37

  SS: Related to climate and food system collapse as after a very wet beginning to this year, the UK is now facing a shortage of vegetables during what should be the peak growing season because of a lack of water and high temperatures. Wholesale price increases include a 60% increase for tomatoes, a 90% increase for iceberg lettuce, and a 40% increase for potatoes as a significant amount of vegetable crops shrivel up across the nation. July was the driest on record for England specifically and many crops were damaged by the extreme June heat event. Obviously, price increases to this scale are going to be devastating to any business that depends on food production, particularly those at razor thin margins such as restaurants. And what we are seeing right now in terms of shortages and price increases is minor compared to what the future will bring. At least the UK is able to somewhat make up for this via imports, for now. In the future, as warming accelerates, more and more areas of the world will be hit by drought simultaneously and continuously as the water cycle gets messed up. Expect massive food shortages to occur quicker than most predictions say, even in relatively wealthy nations.

• u/StatementBot·1·1 Ağu 2026 18:05

  The following submission statement was provided by /u/Portalrules123: --- SS: Related to climate and food system collapse as after a very wet beginning to this year, the UK is now facing a shortage of vegetables during what should be the peak growing season because of a lack of water and high temperatures. Wholesale price increases include a 60% increase for tomatoes, a 90% increase for iceberg lettuce, and a 40% increase for potatoes as a significant amount of vegetable crops shrivel up across the nation. July was the driest on record for England specifically and many crops were damaged by the extreme June heat event. Obviously, price increases to this scale are going to be devastating to any business that depends on food production, particularly those at razor thin margins such as restaurants. And what we are seeing right now in terms of shortages and price increases is minor compared to what the future will bring. At least the UK is able to somewhat make up for this via imports, for now. In the future, as warming accelerates, more and more areas of the world will be hit by drought simultaneously and continuously as the water cycle gets messed up. Expect massive food shortages to occur quicker than most predictions say, even in relatively wealthy nations. --- Please reply to OP's comment here: https://old.reddit.com/r/collapse/comments/1vctasx/worst_weve_known_uk_turns_to_imports_as_drought/p13tlw3/

• u/Konradleijon·1·1 Ağu 2026 18:06

  Dudge

• u/xwing_n_it·1·1 Ağu 2026 18:14

  Imports have to come from somewhere. What will happen as drought and flooding wipe out crops worldwide is the global north will hoover up all the food stocks with their greater wealth. The global south will go hungry. What will then follow will be the collapse of nations in the global south because hunger breaks nations. Then the mass-migration to the north will begin. If nothing is done to rebalance food supplies the north will simply begin mass-slaughter at their borders. Essentially a zombie apocalypse scene from Z. The global north will become completely authoritarian and fascist, eliminating any "undesirable" populations within as they mass-murder migrants. Following that will be war over remaining food producing territory on land and sea. Major powers will collide and nuclear war is a strong possibility. This is the future if climate is not controlled and it is already starting. I seriously believe direct reduction of warming is necessary to save civilization and perhaps the species.

  • u/RichieLT·1·1 Ağu 2026 18:27

    I think we saw a glimpse of that mass-migration the other day in the Spanish province.

    • u/No_Branch_5083·1·1 Ağu 2026 18:46

  • u/refusemouth·1·1 Ağu 2026 18:38

    Pretfy much. We can already see the far-right gain more followers every time a surge of migration occurs. People point fingers at the US for their ICE debacles, but we cansee the increase in nationalist reactionary movements everywhere. Just a few weeks ago people were on the verge of having a pogrom in Northern Ireland against Muslim immigrants, and with the incident at the tip of Morocco in that Spanish autonomous territory a few days ago, we can expect the right to gain ground in Spain as well. People will commit genocide before sharing their countries with large influxes of migrants, and the tendency is more pronounced when the newcomers are of a completely different religious and ideological orientation. In the states, most immigrants come from Latin America and fit in pretty well due to their mostly Christian or Catholic belief systems and honest work ethic, but the images from the Covid era of large caravans heading for the US border crossings really triggered a tribalistic, nationalist anger in many Americans. Anyway, these are just small previews of what is to come. I tend to believe that the 21st will make the 20th century, even with its world wars and genocides, look like a relatively peaceful era

• u/itsatoe·1·1 Ağu 2026 18:21

  This is where the breakdown seems most likely to occur: food imports.

  As exporters face internal agricultural declines, other countries are going to become less and less capable of importing food.

  As I understand it, the seven largest exporters are (in order) US, Brazil, China, Germany, France, Spain, and India (excluding Netherlands, which kinda makes the list, but only for re-exports). Note how we're hearing about major ecological/agricultural issues in several of those countries now.

  Despite being the largest exporter, US imports $40 billion more than it exports. If you want to figure out percentages, the US:

  • produces $545 billion total
  • exports $171 billion
  • imports $212 billion
  • (note these numbers are all agricultural products, so include animal feed and things like cotton, but they provide a good basis for analysis nonetheless)

  As things get worse, imports are going to start drying up, and so exports from countries like US will also start drying up.

• u/Cultural-Answer-321·1·1 Ağu 2026 18:43

  Worst... so far.

  • u/roidbro1·1·1 Ağu 2026 18:49

    Remindme! 12months

    • u/RemindMeBot·1·1 Ağu 2026 18:49