Anton Coaker Blog
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Basketcase
You might recall I expressed concern backalong about the somewhat shady doings of the ‘Red Tractor’ farm assurance scheme. This wizard wheeze is where we ‘voluntarily’ pay inspectors –some of whom turn out to be individuals who’d like to farm themselves, but somehow find themselves having to seek paid work elsewhere- to come round and paw over our farming credentials and integrity. The original idea was that if we could show how squeaky clean we were, we’d get a premium for our produce. But it soon twisted so that if we weren’t accredited, we were to be heavily penalised. Grain and milk can now barely be sold wholesale at all ‘un-assured’. It turned out that the supermarkets were embedded in the Red Tractor organisation… and they tend to be only thinking of one thing. Instead of a reward for compliance, it’s a major kicking if you don’t sign up.
Then, a few months ago, news emerged that Dead Tractor were secretly already a long way down the road of introducing a new extra level of certification, based on a farmers environmental credentials. And that these laurels would be shared with our kind and generous supermarket customers. Instead of our green credentials being something we could earn from, as the brave new world suggests we should, the supermarkets would simply take them as a requirement of supply.
A big row erupted, with some in the NFU – who part own RT- furious that the secret had prematurely got out. Not you’ll note that the secret discussions were already advanced without even asking members- and notably the NFU are negotiating stuff that affects all farmers, whether they’re members or not. Never mind whether we actually needed these assurance schemes at all, when supermarket shelves are full of imported goods with no such scrutiny.
Investigations were clumsily announced, but seemingly deliberately set to belatedly conclude sometime after the planned launch of the new ‘Green Farms Commitments’.
Unsurprisingly, grubby peasants started asking questions of their own. You see, it soon turned out the so called GFC was being pushed by the supermarkets, who’re in turn circling around the noble idea of promoting more environmentally sensitive shopping, based on something called the ‘WWF Basket’. This in turn, is set out by the wildlife charity- who also seem to be suffering from mission-creep- to coerce consumers to ‘do the right thing’. Sadly, it seems they base their rationale on some extremely dubious ‘science’. Chief in their failures has been to rely on dubious ‘facts’ churned out by a vegan evangelist academic at Oxford Uni, and the highly unreliable climate warming metric GWP100, which lumpscow burps in with methane leaking from fossil fuel extraction and landfill. Shell and BP et al could hardly have written better themselves. If you doubt my word, please go and consider where the methane in cow burps comes from…because it’s demonstrably part of a natural 10 year cycle - unlike hydrocarbons buried under the Gulf of Persia or Alaskafor 350 million years.
Unsurprisingly, hidden in the detail of the ‘WWF Basket’ plan is a wholesale increase in plant protein, and massive decrease in meat and dairy. 30% reductions in cattle were mentioned. At the same time as ‘RT’ were planning to finalise and launch their unity with this- before NFU investigations discovered the true extent of it- Tesco started an advertising campaign slyly mentioning your ‘basket’ and the environment. A cynic might speculate that this was a coordinated drip-drip feeding in of their plans. Indeed, the same cynical mind might then notice that a recently appointed head honcho in WWF Sir Dave Lewis happens to have lately been a Tesco’s big wig.Indeed, apparently ‘former’ supermarket execs creep in everywhere when you start looking.
That the NFU have allowed themselves to be associated with this sordid attempt to simultaneously manipulate both ends of the market is appalling. They should’ve called it months ago.A straight vote by farmers would reveal what we think of it all. Ironically, at the other end of the chain, supermarkets will abandon any semblance of promoting our wares at the drop of a hat. Customers won’t pay extra for it, and stores will simply fill their shelves with un-assured imports from wherever they’re coming cheapest, often produced to standards somewhat less demanding than ours. But you can be fairly certain they’d continue to claim the green credentials we’d agreed to give away.
It is a sordid underhand story of secret manipulation, using flawed data from fixated loons, driven by monster corporations. And the victim in all of it would be the poor gentle cow, quietly munching grass grown in green fields. .
You might recall I expressed concern backalong about the somewhat shady doings of the ‘Red Tractor’ farm assurance scheme. This wizard wheeze is where we ‘voluntarily’ pay inspectors –some of whom turn out to be individuals who’d like to farm themselves, but somehow find themselves having to seek paid work elsewhere- to come round and paw over our farming credentials and integrity. The original idea was that if we could show how squeaky clean we were, we’d get a premium for our produce. But it soon twisted so that if we weren’t accredited, we were to be heavily penalised. Grain and milk can now barely be sold wholesale at all ‘un-assured’. It turned out that the supermarkets were embedded in the Red Tractor organisation… and they tend to be only thinking of one thing. Instead of a reward for compliance, it’s a major kicking if you don’t sign up.
Then, a few months ago, news emerged that Dead Tractor were secretly already a long way down the road of introducing a new extra level of certification, based on a farmers environmental credentials. And that these laurels would be shared with our kind and generous supermarket customers. Instead of our green credentials being something we could earn from, as the brave new world suggests we should, the supermarkets would simply take them as a requirement of supply.
A big row erupted, with some in the NFU – who part own RT- furious that the secret had prematurely got out. Not you’ll note that the secret discussions were already advanced without even asking members- and notably the NFU are negotiating stuff that affects all farmers, whether they’re members or not. Never mind whether we actually needed these assurance schemes at all, when supermarket shelves are full of imported goods with no such scrutiny.
Investigations were clumsily announced, but seemingly deliberately set to belatedly conclude sometime after the planned launch of the new ‘Green Farms Commitments’.
Unsurprisingly, grubby peasants started asking questions of their own. You see, it soon turned out the so called GFC was being pushed by the supermarkets, who’re in turn circling around the noble idea of promoting more environmentally sensitive shopping, based on something called the ‘WWF Basket’. This in turn, is set out by the wildlife charity- who also seem to be suffering from mission-creep- to coerce consumers to ‘do the right thing’. Sadly, it seems they base their rationale on some extremely dubious ‘science’. Chief in their failures has been to rely on dubious ‘facts’ churned out by a vegan evangelist academic at Oxford Uni, and the highly unreliable climate warming metric GWP100, which lumpscow burps in with methane leaking from fossil fuel extraction and landfill. Shell and BP et al could hardly have written better themselves. If you doubt my word, please go and consider where the methane in cow burps comes from…because it’s demonstrably part of a natural 10 year cycle - unlike hydrocarbons buried under the Gulf of Persia or Alaskafor 350 million years.
Unsurprisingly, hidden in the detail of the ‘WWF Basket’ plan is a wholesale increase in plant protein, and massive decrease in meat and dairy. 30% reductions in cattle were mentioned. At the same time as ‘RT’ were planning to finalise and launch their unity with this- before NFU investigations discovered the true extent of it- Tesco started an advertising campaign slyly mentioning your ‘basket’ and the environment. A cynic might speculate that this was a coordinated drip-drip feeding in of their plans. Indeed, the same cynical mind might then notice that a recently appointed head honcho in WWF Sir Dave Lewis happens to have lately been a Tesco’s big wig.Indeed, apparently ‘former’ supermarket execs creep in everywhere when you start looking.
That the NFU have allowed themselves to be associated with this sordid attempt to simultaneously manipulate both ends of the market is appalling. They should’ve called it months ago.A straight vote by farmers would reveal what we think of it all. Ironically, at the other end of the chain, supermarkets will abandon any semblance of promoting our wares at the drop of a hat. Customers won’t pay extra for it, and stores will simply fill their shelves with un-assured imports from wherever they’re coming cheapest, often produced to standards somewhat less demanding than ours. But you can be fairly certain they’d continue to claim the green credentials we’d agreed to give away.
It is a sordid underhand story of secret manipulation, using flawed data from fixated loons, driven by monster corporations. And the victim in all of it would be the poor gentle cow, quietly munching grass grown in green fields. .