FlatToTheMatt

@EmmaforWycombe All of that food in your basket takes fertilizer and diesel to get it into your basket. No fertilizer = less yield, no diesel = a lot less yield :-(.

What is in my basket? 👀🧺 Thanks to our new agri-food deal, it will get easier and more affordable for British farmers and producers to export items like these across Europe - putting quality UK food on more tables. #BritishProduce #AgriFood #EUtrade

@DailyMail It’s markets economy. If the exporting states choose to keep their dwindling supplies at home for their own people then the importing countries will go short. Not being self sufficient in food or energy is folly

Diesel shortages 'within weeks' as experts warn energy shock will be WORSE than 1970s - as Reeves begs states not to choke off Britain's supplies by hoarding oil and gas trib.al/hN3MKCW

@toadmeister Surely the atmosphere is a global thing. Just because the coal isn’t being burned in the U.K. to make electricity then if it’s burned in another country to make our imported electric the emmissions are the same????

Ed Miliband has decreed that imported electricity will count as being as 'clean' as wind and solar even when it comes from burning coal and gas, in a move critics have branded "cheating" and "bonkers". dailysceptic.org/2026/03/30/mil…

@Tory_Brexit69 @LizWebsterSBF It’s not just land required for food security. Fertilizer and diesel are also required in huge volumes. Both come via Hormuz. Without fertilizer yields drop. Without diesel the crops cannot be planted or harvested.

@LizWebsterSBF Stop solar farms on farming land, an ideology over food security.

The thought of not having enough fuel in your car is scary. Until you remember you can work from home as you did in Covid. For food production the reality of Trump’s war is far more problematic. Priority should be given to basic essentials: food production is certainly high on that agenda.

@LizWebsterSBF Food production is driven by fertilizer and diesel. Both could be in short supply because Hormuz is closed. Without fert there will be less yield, without diesel there will be no yield.

@AnthonyAinsdale Except in times of war of very high fuel costs or famine in other countries, those countries exporting their salt might stop exports. Then U.K. wouldn’t have any salt. You can’t eat money. So it doesn’t matter how much you can pay if there isn’t any to be bought

Our salt processing plant in runcorn is going bust due to sky high energy costs so we'll import salt even thou we have a never ending quantity of it. It's totally insane! Net zero is destroying all our industry. Criminally reckless.

@aeberman12 And then no one will need Ozempic or other slimming injections coz every single person will be on a diet enforced by lack of supply. Dont forget. You can’t eat money ( or trees). No farmers = no food

Food cost will increase 60-100% because of the fertilizer crisis Right now it’s a cost problem. Within weeks, it becomes a supply problem. Within months, it becomes a yield problem. ft.com/content/27e07c… #EnergyCrisis #FoodSecurity #Fertilizer #Inflation #Geopolitics

For the entirety of human history until approximately 1911, cooking fat was produced as follows. You cooked meat. Fat rendered from the meat. You collected the fat in a pot or jar. You used it to cook the next meal. This process was not invented. It was not engineered. It was not chemically validated. It required no solvent extraction, no bleaching agents, no deodorisation, no synthetic antioxidants, and no regulatory approval. It was noticed. By the first person who cooked meat near a container. The fat that emerged from this process was predominantly saturated and monounsaturated. It was stable at room temperature. It could be stored for months without significant degradation. It tasted good. It cooked well at high heat. It contained fat-soluble vitamins in bioavailable form. It was replaced by something requiring a petrochemical solvent, six processing stages, and a nationally funded public health campaign to make people accept it. The rendering pot is still available. It costs nothing. It works exactly as well as it always did. Keep the fat.

@govt_corrupt If it’s not available or it can’t get to the shops it doesn’t really matter how much someone’s willing to pay. If it’s not available then it’s starvation. You can’t eat money

So what happens when farmers can't acquire fertilizer or when truckers can't afford the diesel. What happens to the price of food then?

@emergenteffects And when there is war or global disruption and the exporting countries decide to stop exporting. It’s a very bad day when U.K. cannot feed itself. People would go hungry

I don’t see what the problem is? Salt prices are set on the global market so there’s no point in making it ourselves.

@LizWebsterSBF Ethanol is a fuel. It’s the E5 or E10 in petrol. That’ll come in handy

The UK shut a bioethanol plant thanks to chasing Trump’s trade deal. Now it’s reopening with £100m of taxpayer money bc war in Iran means imports aren’t reliable. CO₂ is a byproduct of ethanol production and is critical for: • Food packaging • Slaughterhouses • Fertiliser & supply chains This is the reality of Brexit trade policy: 👉 Shut domestic production 👉 Rely on imports 👉 Panic in a crisis 👉 Pay to rebuild what we destroyed Food security is national security. ft.com/content/802d03…

@NorthFarmerMag Reports are that this is a CO2 factory. Lol. So long as it buys British wheat and not imported maize it’ll help Uk farmers

Mothballed Teesside biofuel plant set to reopen amid Iran War shortage fears ift.tt/g5W7pHK

@JohnH0807 @natalieben Farmers produce the veggies and fruits and grains too. These all take fertilizer, diesel, wages, insurance etc and it’s not very profitable producing food.

@natalieben 100% this... and move to a plant based diet.

The UK is only 54% self-sufficient in food, in an increasingly unstable world. That leaves us dangerously exposed. We must treat our land and rural areas as central to feeding our population, not something we can rely on others for. #FoodSecurity #Farming

@natalieben Producing food is not very profitable. Fertilizer up, diesel up, wages up , insurance up etc. producing food in many cases loses the farmer money. You need to guarantee the farmer will make a profit or they won’t grow food. And no one else can !!!!!

@staunovo When Ensus shut it was a Bioethanol plant producing CO2 as a byproduct. Then Govt sold the ethanol market out to Donald and Ensus had to shut. Now it magically reopens as CO2 plant with ethanol as a byproduct product. Hmmmm ( ethanol is added to petrol it’s the E5 or E10

UK carbon dioxide plant to reopen over fears of shortages linked to Iran war Business secretary has approved a £100mn plan to restart the Ensus plant in north-east England for three months initially  ft.com/content/802d03…

@Steven_Swinford But there was a deal done with Donald to get all out Ethanol from them. That’s why Ensus was mothballed. Has Donald not supplied the goods?

The government doesn't like to talk about its contingency plans - on petrol rationing, on fertilister, on CO2 - for fear of provoking panic but behind closed doors in Whitehall they are happening Today we have the first tangible evidence - the government has abgreed to invest £100million to reopen a carbon dioxide plant in Teeside. The plant was mothballed in September CO2 is key to food and drink production, used for everything from packaging food to keep it fresh, fizzy drinks and stunning livestock during slaughter Decision first reported by FT

@implausibleblog U.K. can make biofuel from homegrown wheat = ethanol but the govt shut Ensus, the factory making it. U.K. grows oilseeds and can refine its own bio oil but Govt banned neonics so it’s uneconomical for farmers to grow it !!

Caroline Lucas, "There isn't enough oil and gas in the North Sea to bring prices down. If extracted, it's sold to highest bigger. So prices don't drop" When we know what the problem is, when we have actual technological green solutions, and still there isn't the drive and energy to take the better path How many fossil fuel crises do we need before our government superchargers a green energy revolution?

@FarmersGuardian Fertilizer and fuel shortages or high prices mean farmers can’t grow food. If there are worldwide shortages other countries will stop exporting. Bad job then if U.K. can’t feed itself and imports can’t be sourced !!!!

🗣️ "We are approaching an emergency the way things are going." Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch says she is 'worried' about UK food security, with 'loads of farmers' exiting the industry following treatment from Labour. 🇬🇧 READ MORE: ow.ly/XrRP50YxYtA

BREAKING: The nitrogen trap just closed. Three locks snapped shut simultaneously. The planting window is closing behind them. And the food the world eats next year is now being decided by molecules that cannot reach the soil in time. Lock one: the Strait of Hormuz. The IRGC permissioned corridor allows oil tankers from friendly nations to pay $2 million in yuan and pass. It does not allow fertiliser vessels to pass at any price. Zero approved fertiliser transits in 24 days. The Gulf supplies 49 percent of the world’s exported urea and roughly 30 percent of traded ammonia. That supply is not delayed. It is denied. The gate opens for molecules that fund the gatekeeper. It stays closed for molecules that feed the planet. Lock two: Russia. The world’s largest exporter of ammonium nitrate just halted all AN exports until after April 21. Three to four million tonnes per year, gone from global markets at the exact moment the Northern Hemisphere needs it most. The official reason is “domestic priority.” The strategic effect is leverage. Russia earns windfall revenue from the oil price spike its ally’s war created, then removes the fertiliser that farmers need to plant through the crisis. The disease and the cure, again, from the same address. Lock three: China. Beijing has banned exports of nitrogen-potassium blends and phosphate fertilisers through August 2026. China is the world’s largest phosphate producer and a major nitrogen supplier. The ban removes the last alternative source that could have compensated for Hormuz and Russia. Three locks. Three countries. Three deliberate decisions timed to the same biological calendar. The biological calendar does not negotiate. Corn requires nitrogen at the V6 to VT growth stage or kernel set is permanently reduced. Wheat requires it at tillering and jointing or grain fill collapses. Rice requires it at transplanting or yield drops 20 to 40 percent in low-input systems. These are not economic models. They are cellular processes. The plant either receives nitrogen during the window or it does not. If it does not, no subsequent application, no price increase, no policy reversal can recover what was lost. The damage is written into the biology of the seed. The US Corn Belt window closes mid-April. European top-dressing is happening now. Indian Kharif preparation begins in May. Bangladeshi Boro rice transplanting is underway this week. Every one of these windows is closing while the three largest sources of nitrogen on Earth are simultaneously locked: Hormuz by military blockade, Russia by export decree, China by trade ban. The USDA Prospective Plantings report arrives March 31. The FAO Food Price Index publishes April 3. These will quantify what the molecules already know: the nitrogen did not arrive. The yield loss is locked in. The 5 to 10 percent global drag will concentrate where the buffers are thinnest: subsistence farms in Bangladesh, Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, where a 20 percent shortfall does not mean lower profits. It means hunger. Sri Lanka banned synthetic fertiliser in 2021. Rice yields collapsed 40 percent. The government fell. In 2008, fertiliser and oil spiked simultaneously and food riots erupted across 30 countries. In 2026, the strait blocks fertiliser while Russia and China withdraw the alternatives, and the planting windows close on a planet with nowhere else to turn. The war is fought with missiles. The famine is fought with molecules. The molecules are trapped behind three locks on three continents, timed to the one calendar that cannot be paused, extended, or negotiated: the calendar written into the DNA of every seed in the soil. Full analysis: open.substack.com/pub/shanakaans…

@buctootim @TWBFarms Farmers can probably stay in business if they use 20% or 30% of their usual fertilizer for crops. The problem the rest of the population has is that reduced fertilizer = less yield, wheat makes flour makes bread and cakes etc. so less yield = less flour = less food.

@TWBFarms So its the government's fault, not the farmer's for not buying in advance the fertiliser they need to stay in business? Sounds like the industry needs a shakeout.

It took a war in Iran for Labour to realise they shut down domestic nitrogen production. Farmers are applying fertiliser now, not in 8 weeks. Only immediate, urgent action by the government will change how much food we have 12 months from now. #FoodSecurity #FarmingCrisis #UKAgriculture #NetZero #LabourFail #FoodSecurityIsNationalSecurity gov.uk/government/new…