It's insane that it's cheaper to import than to grow locally. But you're not going to get the locals work in food production if the pay is such that they cannot survive on it. I wish I had a solution. Being a foreigner myself, I once, as a student many years ago, spent a month picking strawberries and raspberries in Norfolk. It was so badly paid that I didn't even cover my expenses and when it came to the raspberries, the pay was so dismal that we even went on strike. Which was apparently not an uncommon happening there. Not that it helped us, we got no raise. I'd never do such a job these days, simply because it is (or was) so grossly underpaid.
Quiet so, and you have experienced it first hand Aster. There are still greenhouses in Gsy. but most are in a state of disrepair, where the owners are hoping for permission to build houses on the greenhouse sites - houses being far more lucrative than growing and for easy money. We had our greenhouses taken down about 30 years ago & now a farmer uses the land for his cattle.
Just to add a little humour to Alan's tomato industry decline comments which were also featured in our local newspaper, the cartoonist had a crack at the topic. The two men are wearing the traditional Guernsey jumper which we all wore at one time or another, with a beret on their heads
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It's insane that it's cheaper to import than to grow locally. But you're not going to get the locals work in food production if the pay is such that they cannot survive on it. I wish I had a solution. Being a foreigner myself, I once, as a student many years ago, spent a month picking strawberries and raspberries in Norfolk. It was so badly paid that I didn't even cover my expenses and when it came to the raspberries, the pay was so dismal that we even went on strike. Which was apparently not an uncommon happening there. Not that it helped us, we got no raise. I'd never do such a job these days, simply because it is (or was) so grossly underpaid.
Quiet so, and you have experienced it first hand Aster. There are still greenhouses in Gsy. but most are in a state of disrepair, where the owners are hoping for permission to build houses on the greenhouse sites - houses being far more lucrative than growing and for easy money. We had our greenhouses taken down about 30 years ago & now a farmer uses the land for his cattle.
Just to add a little humour to Alan's tomato industry decline comments which were also featured in our local newspaper, the cartoonist had a crack at the topic. The two men are wearing the traditional Guernsey jumper which we all wore at one time or another,
with a beret on their heads
Last edited: 22 January 2017 18:54:44