Thread by @EmporersNewC

@anandMenon1 OK, so that's good, because regionally, it is critically important to this country's economy, and that is pretty indisputable. But to answer the aggregate question, he is very wrong, and let me explain why... 1/14

@anandMenon1 Firstly, I know you’re not arguing this, but I’m just putting it out there before I explain it, practically everything can be substituted. The ability to substitute should not be a measure of if something is critical.

(It makes sense at the end)

@anandMenon1 As far as I know, food margins are low, and so the farmers and fisherman have to rely basically on mass sales. This means there is a lot of effort and it doesn’t necessarily result in a big return to the wider economy.

@anandMenon1 An economist will probably do the maths at that point and work out the profits aren’t great, the spending on the wider economy aren’t great, and therefore, it’s not critical. This, I'm assuming, is what has happened.

@anandMenon1 Enter the analyst…

(It’s like a film where an analyst goes to an island to bring down a drug overlord by arguing with Westminster economists)

…and he says “Take a step back and look at the product.”

@anandMenon1 The contribution that food makes to the economy doesn’t stop when it is sold. People eat it, it is turned into fuel, and what is generated is then used to fuel 100% of our workforce productivity.

@anandMenon1 About 50% of the fuel that the UK economy uses to run its workforce comes from the UK food sector. It is, therefore, not the true the UK food industry is not currently important to the economy.

@anandMenon1 The UK food sector is actually one of the biggest single contributors to the aggregate economy, if not the biggest. As long as you're measuring the right thing.

@anandMenon1 Now onto the ‘outsourcing’ argument, I’ll just go back to the fact that 100% of our economy is dependent on this fuel. Remove that fuel, and you have no economy.

@anandMenon1 Development of that fuel is not without issues, it’s subject to variability as a result of weather and wildlife, and when there is a fuel shortage, the fuel producers make sure they support their economy first.

@anandMenon1 And so it is wrong to say the economy does not need a fault tolerant system to provide the fuel that 100% of it relies on, when any external fuel supply cannot be guaranteed. That is basically why you create critical systems.

@anandMenon1 In fact, taking into account the life critical aspect and the variability, the food sector probably requires a critical system implementation more than any other sector in our economy.

@anandMenon1 In short, the economist has undervalued the importance of food to the economy, the relative support from the UK sector to food, and doesn’t appear to be taking into account the variability of supply from external sources based on how critical it is.

@anandMenon1 And now I just have to roll my eyes at John Saxon as the camera cuts to a slide rule embedded in a tree stump with US choppers approaching.

@anandMenon1 Like I said in the beginning, any sector can be replaced, but the UK food industry massively contributes to our economy with a fuel which is life critical and variable and I don’t know a sector more important to support domestically. 14/14