CURRENT stories of impending doom seem to be based on forecasts of dearer food prices and unavoidable shortages once we leave the European Union.

My philosophy when testing this kind of pessimism has always been to "Look around you to see reality." For example, as I write this and watch the drizzle steadily falling, with an outside temperature of 17C, I can't get unduly excited at the prospect of expiring during the next few weeks through heat exhaustion.

To test how much we rely on the EU for our food supplies, I thought I’d analyse my usual weekly shopping list for countries of origin, with the following interesting results.

Milk, butter, cream, cheese, bread, potatoes, carrots, cauliflower, broccoli, celery, onions, bacon, eggs, oats, ice cream, salads, salt, chicken, beef, pork, tomatoes, cooking oil, potato crisps .... all from the UK.

Bananas from Mexico. Apples from Chile. Oranges from South Africa. Almonds from USA

Beans from Morocco and Egypt. Asparagus from Guatemala. Tea from Ceylon. Coffee and corned beef from Brazil.

Last but not least, beer from Yorkshire and whisky from Scotland.

The only item on the list made from EU imported materials (wood pulp from Sweden apparently) was, appropriately, toilet rolls.

Most non-consumables in our house seem to have come from China.

I don’t think we’ll starve.

Stan Harrison

Kendal