Red Tractor, Mrs Batters remarks!

Wolds Beef

Member
@Guy Smith Red tractor need to get behind us! We spend all this money with them, Let's see more advertising in shops and supermarkets and in the media. I agree we all need to get behind it but they need to support us.
WB
 

Simon Chiles

DD Moderator
@Guy Smith Red tractor need to get behind us! We spend all this money with them, Let's see more advertising in shops and supermarkets and in the media. I agree we all need to get behind it but they need to support us.
WB

I’ve been thinking about the general feelings that farmers have for the Red Tractor scheme for some while and have come to the conclusion that what we really need from Red Tractor and the NFU is a very hard push for proper food labelling especially in the likely event ( and I hardly dare mention) of a hard Brexit. I’m sure that farmers would have a bit more respect, and could see the point of a scheme that actually meant something. It needs to be made impossible to import some produce from abroad, such as hormone treated beef, slap it in a pie in the midlands and call it made in Britain. The consumer hasn’t a clue what they’re buying at the moment. We could have a fair justification on taking this stance when the NHS is worried about the ramifications of resistance to antibiotics etc. without actually breaking any anti competition rules.
 
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Clive

Staff Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lichfield
I’ve been thinking about the general feelings that farmers have for the Red Tractor scheme for some while and have come to the conclusion that what we really need from Red Tractor and the NFU is a very hard push for proper food labelling especially in the likely event ( and I hardly dare mention) of a hard Brexit. I’m sure that farmers would have a bit more respect, and could see the point of a scheme that actually meant something. It needs to be made impossible to import some produce from abroad, such as hormone treated beef, slap it in a pie in the midlands and call it made in Britain. The consumer hasn’t a clue what they’re buying at the moment. We could have a fair justification on taking this stance when the NHS is worried about the ramifications of resistance to antibiotics etc. without actually breaking any anti competition rules.

I agree we certainly need something that's clear to consumers, realistic, honest (and therefore credible) affordable and well marketed that sets us apart from lower standard imports or products and practices banned in the UK

Red Tractor is way to far broken and lacks any credibility now though IMO, it achieves none of the above and the last people that should be involved in (owning) such thing should be the NFU - their job should be to independently hold such schemes accountable and make sure they serve the interest of farmers
 

JP1

Member
Livestock Farmer
Please help @JP1 Article on Farming UK about a recent meeting at Crediton Milling.
WB

Government,News,NFU

Farmers urged to get behind Red Tractor post-Brexit

51281_1.jpg


The food and farming industry needs to unite behind the Red Tractor to avoid potential food security issues post-Brexit, the NFU President said

The food industry needs to unite behind the Red Tractor to avoid potential food security issues post-Brexit, NFU president Minette Batters has warned.

Speaking at a recent meeting in Devon, organised by animal feed company Crediton Milling, Mrs Batters said it was vital to champion British food to protect against sub-standard imports and grow the market for high welfare domestic produce.

“We need a far more honest, open, transparent labelling system - we need to come behind one brand identity,” she explained.

“Assurance has a huge part to play, if we step back and let cheap ingredients come in and slap the Union Jack on, it’s going to work against us and what we’ve built for 20 years.”

Red Tractor recently ran a big televised campaign, which boosted recognition and support considerably.

The number of shoppers who said they would choose a Red Tractor product over the cheapest one rose from 36% before the campaign to 41% after.




That could equate to 1.4 million shoppers moving from the cheapest brand to Red Tractor, said Mrs Batters.

However, AHDB could be doing far more to promote British farming, she added. “I don’t think it’s doing what we need it to do. The AHDB receives £1million a week from farmers, it’s a huge investment.

“We need complete transformation of AHDB; the governance structure should be split so we have two platforms: One on research, development, productivity and skills and the other focussed on market development, brand and promotion, which ultimately works as a platform for exports as well as the home market.”

The UK had been under-exporting to Europe for years, so there were tremendous opportunities, said Mrs Batters. But there were also great threats from imported food.

She said: “Our relationships with other countries are very much focussed on agriculture being a key part of the trade package.

“The British government has given equivalence to Australia and New Zealand on standards, the US is saying the British food market is a huge untapped market for American producers; this means GM, antibiotics that we don’t have, and crops sprayed with banned chemicals.”

Mrs Batters called on farmers to hammer this point home to local MPs and to ask them personally what they’re going to do about it. “We constantly see rising British standards – but they aren’t being championed enough.”
 

Clive

Staff Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lichfield
Government,News,NFU

Farmers urged to get behind Red Tractor post-Brexit

51281_1.jpg


The food and farming industry needs to unite behind the Red Tractor to avoid potential food security issues post-Brexit, the NFU President said

The food industry needs to unite behind the Red Tractor to avoid potential food security issues post-Brexit, NFU president Minette Batters has warned.

Speaking at a recent meeting in Devon, organised by animal feed company Crediton Milling, Mrs Batters said it was vital to champion British food to protect against sub-standard imports and grow the market for high welfare domestic produce.

“We need a far more honest, open, transparent labelling system - we need to come behind one brand identity,” she explained.

“Assurance has a huge part to play, if we step back and let cheap ingredients come in and slap the Union Jack on, it’s going to work against us and what we’ve built for 20 years.”

Red Tractor recently ran a big televised campaign, which boosted recognition and support considerably.

The number of shoppers who said they would choose a Red Tractor product over the cheapest one rose from 36% before the campaign to 41% after.




That could equate to 1.4 million shoppers moving from the cheapest brand to Red Tractor, said Mrs Batters.

However, AHDB could be doing far more to promote British farming, she added. “I don’t think it’s doing what we need it to do. The AHDB receives £1million a week from farmers, it’s a huge investment.

“We need complete transformation of AHDB; the governance structure should be split so we have two platforms: One on research, development, productivity and skills and the other focussed on market development, brand and promotion, which ultimately works as a platform for exports as well as the home market.”

The UK had been under-exporting to Europe for years, so there were tremendous opportunities, said Mrs Batters. But there were also great threats from imported food.

She said: “Our relationships with other countries are very much focussed on agriculture being a key part of the trade package.

“The British government has given equivalence to Australia and New Zealand on standards, the US is saying the British food market is a huge untapped market for American producers; this means GM, antibiotics that we don’t have, and crops sprayed with banned chemicals.”

Mrs Batters called on farmers to hammer this point home to local MPs and to ask them personally what they’re going to do about it. “We constantly see rising British standards – but they aren’t being championed enough.”

Whilst I agree with her sentiment Red Tractor is just to broken and has no credibility IMO now

we do need assurance but not assurance that looks like it does right now
 

Bald Rick

Moderator
Livestock Farmer
Location
Anglesey
Government,News,NFU

Farmers urged to get behind Red Tractor post-Brexit

51281_1.jpg


The food and farming industry needs to unite behind the Red Tractor to avoid potential food security issues post-Brexit, the NFU President said

The food industry needs to unite behind the Red Tractor to avoid potential food security issues post-Brexit, NFU president Minette Batters has warned.

Speaking at a recent meeting in Devon, organised by animal feed company Crediton Milling, Mrs Batters said it was vital to champion British food to protect against sub-standard imports and grow the market for high welfare domestic produce.

“We need a far more honest, open, transparent labelling system - we need to come behind one brand identity,” she explained.

“Assurance has a huge part to play, if we step back and let cheap ingredients come in and slap the Union Jack on, it’s going to work against us and what we’ve built for 20 years.”

Red Tractor recently ran a big televised campaign, which boosted recognition and support considerably.

The number of shoppers who said they would choose a Red Tractor product over the cheapest one rose from 36% before the campaign to 41% after.




That could equate to 1.4 million shoppers moving from the cheapest brand to Red Tractor, said Mrs Batters.

However, AHDB could be doing far more to promote British farming, she added. “I don’t think it’s doing what we need it to do. The AHDB receives £1million a week from farmers, it’s a huge investment.

“We need complete transformation of AHDB; the governance structure should be split so we have two platforms: One on research, development, productivity and skills and the other focussed on market development, brand and promotion, which ultimately works as a platform for exports as well as the home market.”

The UK had been under-exporting to Europe for years, so there were tremendous opportunities, said Mrs Batters. But there were also great threats from imported food.

She said: “Our relationships with other countries are very much focussed on agriculture being a key part of the trade package.

“The British government has given equivalence to Australia and New Zealand on standards, the US is saying the British food market is a huge untapped market for American producers; this means GM, antibiotics that we don’t have, and crops sprayed with banned chemicals.”

Mrs Batters called on farmers to hammer this point home to local MPs and to ask them personally what they’re going to do about it. “We constantly see rising British standards – but they aren’t being championed enough.”




But she’s bang on the money regarding getting behind our own foodstuffs and being proud of the standards we achieve.
I fear the government will throw all this away for the sake of trade deals .... any trade deals
 
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Clive

Staff Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lichfield
also - is it traceable ? (ie field to fork ?)

and as a consumer what does "safe" mean - I wouldn't imagine supermarkets sell anything that's not safe do they !! ?? and "with care" again what does that mean ? how do RT test if we are "care" - can't ever recall having a test re my attitude to wheat !


I'm sure there are better messages to get across .................. like UK farms DON'T use growth hormones in meat, don't use neonics or atrazine etc and no GM

it’s all far to polite, not hard hitting enough so lacks any impact ................... if you want to know how to do food marketing and change eating habits look no further than the Vegans !
 
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JP1

Member
Livestock Farmer
But she’s bang on the money regarding getting behind our own foodstuffs and being proud of the standards we achieve.
I fear the government will throw all this away for the sake of trade deals .... any trade deals

Peter Crichton in his weekly pig newsletter said exactly this if Liam Fox and his stated aims to have no or low import tariffs on food to keep prices down
 
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Bald Rick

Moderator
Livestock Farmer
Location
Anglesey
Peter Crichton in his weekly pig newsletter said exactly this if Liam Fox and his stated aims to have no or low import tariffs on food to keep prices down

That would be the same Liam Fox who assured us that there would be over 30 trade deals ready for one minute passed midnight on 30th March would it?
When the reality is that so far the UK has a potential but not signed deal with Switzerland and possibly some deals with Australia and NZ.
We are well and truly f**ked
 

Wooly

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Romney Marsh
Unfortunately these FA schemes have been taking millions of pounds a year from farmers, for several years, and we have had little in return for our ‘investment’ .

There was a media article this week that completely dismissed RT as one of the worst assurance schemes for animal welfare. It noted it was only a tick box scheme.

I think once Brexit is delivered, we need a decent advertising campaign to get the general public to be patriotic and support all U.K. produced goods .

That requires a Union Jack to be added to packaging, not a FA sticker that most consumers take little interest in.
 
Location
Devon
I think the NFU/RT are getting very worried about increasing numbers of farmers leaving the scheme as this looks to be the case with the ever increasing amounts of store cattle/ stirks being sold as non FA coupled with ever increasing numbers of prime lambs that are going thru the live rings that are not assured.

Numbers of Non Assured stock are rising by the week that there is no doubt about.
 

Henarar

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Somerset
That would be the same Liam Fox who assured us that there would be over 30 trade deals ready for one minute passed midnight on 30th March would it?
When the reality is that so far the UK has a potential but not signed deal with Switzerland and possibly some deals with Australia and NZ.
We are well and truly fudgeed
Apparently the south American's are ready to import the day after Brexit they can do beef at half our price and the catering trade especially don't give a feck where it comes from
 

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Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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