Opinion: 'Brexit can't be blamed for everything but salad shortages in Sainsbury's should have been planned for'

Cucumbers and iceberg lettuce are the latest items in our online shop to have fallen into the 'not available' category - last week tomatoes and peppers.

Prior to that it's been eggs, crisps, oil and bread alongside stocks of children's paracetamol and, of course, toilet roll and Lemsip that haven't made it into our basket if we go back to those complicated days of the pandemic, writes columnist Lauren Abbott.

Apples and pears are rumoured to be next as a cavern opens between supermarkets and the growers - who are getting more vocal in their claims that supplying shops as they do now is fast becoming unsustainable.

Pictures circulating on social media showing shelves in European supermarkets fit to burst with fresh produce would have you questioning whether the weather is really to blame - even Ukrainian supermarkets in the midst of a war zone looked healthier this week than the shelves of Sainsbury's.

The dreaded B word might have you arguing it's our exit from the EU which means available crops don't make their way across the Channel.

Mates rates if you like - through more straightforward (and cheaper) supply routes.

These fresh produce shortages are showing us just how exposed we now are.

'While Brexit can't be blamed for all our problems - the issue of food security should have been dealt with...'

For years our supermarket shelves have been full, regardless of what has been happening in the world, and that is no longer true.

The environment secretary might be extolling the virtues of turnips or other seasonable veg - but she's merely skirting around the uncomfortable truth that the government has failed its own growers and left us reliant on so many others to put food on our tables.

The suggestion is apples and pears are likely to be the next foods online shopping orders reject as growers mothball orchards because farming and haulage costs outweigh the poor returns producers say they're in line for.

Brexit meant exit - so it should have also meant that once you're less equipped to rely on friends abroad you need to invest in adequately protecting interests closer to home.

Those that campaigned for us to leave the EU were extremely quick to tell us the grass was going to be infinitely greener. Alongside taking back control of our borders, there would be new trade deals and we'd be masters of our own destiny.

And while Brexit can't be blamed for all our problems - the issue of food security and how we were going to be left confidently feeding the nation should have been dealt with.

Right now the grass doesn't appear greener and post-Brexit food policies, it seems, could leave us not being able to grow the grass at all.