Brexit Supply Issues and Embracing Imagination
The Probable Food Supply Side Effect of Brexit
With Brexit gearing up to take full effect in just over a month from now (Britain officially leaving the European Union), more and more Europeans are taking a closer look at exactly what it all means. And, while it’s impossible to predict, there is quite a consensus that it will cause major upheaval in the food industry, hitting Britain, of course, the hardest.
Britain, which receives much of its fresh food supplies from farms across Europe, like tomatoes from the Sicilian countryside, is taking a big risk in terms of food supply by electing to break relationships. The timing of Brexit’s initiation in terms of food, unfortunately, couldn’t be worse since much of the fresh food consumed by the British in the fall and winter is imported.
One of the biggest food-related side effects of Brexit is the new inspections at Britain’s borders, which will likely cause delays and, therefore, an opportunity for fresh food to sit and rot. Prior to Brexit, food importers have been able to easily (and affordably) bring fresh food across Britain’s borders. However, with new documentation protocol and border checks, all of that is likely to change.
According to the British government, there’s a high likelihood that food trucks will be delayed at the border upwards of two days and, while all of the new systems get put into place, these delays could last months, causing huge drama for fresh food suppliers. This possible nation-wide fresh food interruption not only could hike up food prices, but it could cause massive concern among citizens, eliciting “panic buying” that will only make the food supply disruption worse.
London-based produce importers are already voicing their concern, saying that they “don’t know what to plan for” and that they “have limited resources at our disposal”, which is preventing them from taking action. And, because fresh food is impossible to stockpile, there is little if any prep that can be done.
Why Embracing Your Imagination Could Save Your Business - and the World
In the words of Albert Einstein, “Imagination is more important than knowledge…Imagination encircles the world”. But, look around the business world and very few books or courses are selling “business imagination”. In fact, it seems now more than ever business owners are working to enhance their “business knowledge”, wanting to become savvy and skilled at concrete fundamentals of running and scaling a business rather than imagining what’s possible.
Jonathan Ledgard, a well-respected journalist and correspondent, however, would like to help us all understand what Einstein was trying to point out: That the future of everything, including business, relies on imagination - not knowledge. According to Ledgard, who spent years observing a wide-range of lectures from some of the world’s most intelligent people in fields as diverse as theoretical physics and philosophy, the more your brain starts "moving in these completely different and much richer directions,” the more you begin to realize that what you thought you knew about the world “is not at all the world as it is”.
A realist at heart, Ledgard’s studies lead him to the realization that, in order to save anything destined for doom (whether the planet or your small business), you have to start moving in an “imaginative direction”. Or, as he recently noted in an interview published in the New Yorker, “Imagination at scale is our only recourse.” As such, rather than focusing on gaining more knowledge, people should devote time to building their imagination, using what they already know to invent, create, and dream about limitless possibilities.
Collaborating across industries, Ledgard and his team of artists and architects have determined that the only way to give the world a shot at survival is to embrace the fanciful and abstract, finding ways to make ideas take form in reality. We might all “stand a chance”, says Ledgard, “if cargo drones delivered goods in the roadless areas of East Africa; if sentient robots were curious about the natural world; if people could immerse themselves in the sights and sounds of the deepest parts of the ocean; if plants and animals could pay people for the cost of their preservation”.
And that’s just the beginning of his imagination.
Of course, the chances of all of these imagined scenarios becoming real is little to none. But, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t all be encouraged to start trying. Even just one small idea, Ledgard notes, could dramatically improve the state of the world - and that’s “really worth your time”.
Ledgard points out that imagination and creation shouldn’t always be focused on “disruption”. Instead, the idea is to “add new solutions” to what’s already working.