Post Brexit Agriculture

apolloa

Can you provide an example of this for us to debate? The market does not work when there is some ludicrous legislation in place from other EU countries.

Sonic67

An example is to do with what constitutes as a natural food source, France has more stringent legislation surrounding things like it so more work has to be done due to that. Like taking chemical A from fruit A and chemical B from fruit B to make Chemical C, it's still natural but the legislation around it varies. Or somthing like that.
But it wouldn't change anything after Brexit unless we never sold food products to France, which is difficult when companies like Mars are in the UK.

thegeby

And that planet won't care either...

You are anthropomorphising rock.

Then there is the sheer sense of scale of the universe that needs taking into account.

More stars 'than grains of sand'

"There are 10 times more stars in the night sky than grains of sand in the world's deserts and beaches, scientists say.

Astronomers have worked out that there are 70 thousand million million million - or seven followed by 22 zeros - stars visible from the Earth through telescopes. The total is said to be the most accurate estimate yet of the number of stars."

So bear in mind how much sand there is on earth. Next time you are at the beach mess up one grain. Do the other grains care?

You still have ten times that amount to consider.

We will never get to other solar systems either. This isn't because our technology isn't good enough yet. We'd be up against the laws of physics.

There is a "nearby star" which has at least three earth-sized planets in the habitable zone of that star. That "nearby star" is 40 light-years from earth, That's only about 23,500,000,000,000,000 miles from earth. 24.7 million times the distance from the earth to the sun.

This guy explains some of the scale involved.

tapzilla2k

Of course any consumer can support local agriculture by seeking out and purchase British produce. That would give a boost to British agriculture. It is only that nothing prevents them from doing that today and many do. Still the big chains dominate food distribution. You seem to have a rather "dirigiste" definition of the term market, trying to tell it what to do.

At the other side of the table, when the trade deals are being negotiated, are countries with a very strong agricultural lobby, with production costs well below those in the UK and many of whom run a trade deficit with the UK. Do you really expect them to be "nice" in face of the UK trying to support its farmers?

EarthRod

No, hard cold reality of the international commodity markets. They are usually the case of prices being jacked up.  

Which involves regulating markets properly, but you'll have free market believers floundering around in a panic screaming "Socialism". The Tories never really regulate markets as that gets in the way of profiteering.

The Apollo astronauts left mirrors on the moon, you can point lasers up at them and calculate how far the Moon is from the Earth. Conspiracy theories about the Apollo Landings fall flat once you apply the laws of physics to the claims and point a telescope up at the lunar landing sites or you know NASA has a probe mapping out the moon - LRO Mission Overview
We do have the technological means to send people to Mars for example, but it would likely be a one way trip.

NASA and others are working on the problems with sending people off into the solar system. The biggest problem is radiation and Cosmic Rays, plus atrophy of muscles etc. It looks like China and the US are in a race to get people onto the moon. The Moon is an ideal place to build and launch space craft from, as you only have to escape the Earth's gravity and travel to the moon. You can also conduct long term studies of how humans react to living on the moon for long periods of time.

If there is life in other parts of the solar system it's likely to be of the bacterial kind. Secondly we have plenty of Asteroids to mine once the technology is perfected. It's unlikely we'll be mining the gas giants. And until we develop a technology to travel near the speed of light, we won't be wrecking any planets in distant solar systems any time soon.

The upside to asteroid mining is that it would likely mean China's grip on precious metals and other resources would melt away.

thegeby

I would like to go mining in the asteroid belt for single pole magnets.

EarthRod

No no no. Tut! Not Poles!! Monopoles!!!

apolloa

You never answered my question, what right do humans have to go and ruin other planets when we are doing a damn fine job of ruining Earth? But instead you've attempted to make a business case to go and ruin other planets. Mining asteroids? Hahaha in who's lifetime is that then? If we get to Mars it won't be long till corporations mine it, its in the works already with space travel open to private business now. Profit will come first before ALL else, always has and always will.. hence we will ruin planets.

apolloa

So your trying to predict the future? And claiming man will NEVER leave Earth? Ok....

Sonic67

Noooo. I'm claiming we won't leave the solar system. We've already left Earth.