(1 Mar 2019) For almost as long as Britain and the European Union have been wrangling over Brexit, Melvin Burton has been preparing for a bumpy landing.
He's growing vegetables, drying fruit and buying in bulk.
He reels off the cornucopia of cans filling his shed and the cupboard under his stairs: "tomato sauce, chopped tomatoes, corned beef, tuna, honey, baked beans, tins of ham....."
The 45-year-old, who lives with his wife and 8-year-old son in a village near Cambridge in eastern England, said he started buying goods in bulk a year and a half ago, but felt no one seemed to accept that there was a "real problem."
Plenty of people think there is a problem now.
Britain is scheduled to leave the EU in less than a month, on March 29, but its departure terms are still unknown.
A U.K.-EU deal designed to ensure a smooth departure has been rejected by Britain's Parliament, and lawmakers are due to vote in mid-March on three starkly differing options: leave with a deal, leave without a deal, or postpone Brexit.
Quitting the bloc without a deal would, overnight, bring tariffs, customs checks and other barriers between Britain and the EU, and could bring gridlock to British ports.
U.K. officials and companies have been bracing for potential trade disruption by stockpiling everything from ice cream and chocolate cookies to essential medicines and body bags.
But the government still warned this week that British people and businesses are unprepared for the shock of a "no-deal" exit.
Britain imports almost a third of its food from the EU, even more during the early spring "hunger gap," when domestic crops have yet to be harvested and retailers rely on fresh produce from Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands and further afield.
Supermarket chief executives have warned the government that the country's available storage space is full, and "even if there were more space it is impossible to stockpile fresh produce, such as salad leaves and fresh fruit."
The government says there will be severe disruption to cross-Channel freight and "reduced availability and choice of products," especially fresh fruit and vegetables, if Britain leaves the EU on March 29 without a divorce deal.
And it has warned that "there is a risk that consumer behavior could exacerbate, or create, shortages in this scenario."
Some people, like Burton, are taking no chances. He's a member of a Facebook group titled "48 Percent Preppers," with more than 10,000 members.
The name refers to the 48 percent of electors who voted to remain in the EU in Britain's 2016 referendum.
"Remain" voters make up the bulk of Brexit hoarders; "leave" supporters are apt to dismiss warnings of food and medicine shortages as "Project Fear."
Members of the group and several similar online forums swap tips on what to buy and how to store it, whether to stock up on fuel and how to knit their own clothes.
"Originally when the group was formed it tended to be people who were sort of interested in prepping, you know, the curiosity and increasingly what happened is we are getting more and more mothers with families and young children or elderly or people who are disabled coming and who are very concerned," said Burton.
Others have seen a commercial opportunity. One company in northern England sells "Brexit boxes" containing freeze-dried food, a water filter and a fire-starter for almost 300 pounds (400 US dollars).
In London, seed importer Paolo Arrigo put together 12 months' worth of easy-to-grow seed packets, carrots, beans, lettuce, pumpkin, tomatoes and labelled it a Brexit Vegetable Growing Survival Kit. He has sold hundreds in a few weeks.
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