Looming food crisis,what can uk ag industry do?

bobk

Member
Location
stafford
Ag today , which I watch most nights, had a report that Rice farmers are not planting in Asia. The price of Fert. Is to high, so they are buying as much as they can afford and planting the commensurate area for a full Fert. program.
Rice is the staple food for 3 Billion people.
Look at the state of Sri Lanka with a forced Organic program.
Going to happen all over the world , we're here to make a living not be philanthropists
 

Macsky

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Highland
I read the other night that producer price inflation which I take will be the cost of product going into manufacturing has hit 19.2% which from where I’m sitting would be closer to the mark . The article also said that this was an indicator for where the rpi was headed.
I would say that a realistic RPI is just about there already
 

tullah

Member
Location
Linconshire
IMHO , goverment are saying absolutely nothing because they know if they do, the GP will panic buy every single thing from the shelves and there'll be mass hysteria.
Yes better to put off the evil day of panic and losing voters. Then all hell let loose once there's just seed left.
 

DrWazzock

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire
I can see a possible direction favoured by the government could be that they encourage poorer countries to grow our food for us so all the nasty smells, slow tractors, pesticides and “animal cruelty” is out of sight out of mind. This leaves the U.K. to carry on pursuing the greening agenda, rewilding, tourism, badger sympathisers, net zero, financial services etc.
All wrong in my view but I could see it happening. I’d say the @Lowland1 model is what is seen as the way forward. Making a virtue of providing gainful employment for the natives abroad? (And driving costs right down and retail margins up of course).
Farming in the U.K. will be a rich man’s hobby, niche economic activity and maybe still a tax dodge unless things change. But the future for widescale commercial farming in the U.K. looks a bit shaky with the present crowd in charge as far as I can see. Just look at the indifference over our fertiliser plants if you don’t believe me.
 

DaveGrohl

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Cumbria
I can see a possible direction favoured by the government could be that they encourage poorer countries to grow our food for us so all the nasty smells, slow tractors, pesticides and “animal cruelty” is out of sight out of mind. This leaves the U.K. to carry on pursuing the greening agenda, rewilding, tourism, badger sympathisers, net zero, financial services etc.
All wrong in my view but I could see it happening. I’d say the @Lowland1 model is what is seen as the way forward. Making a virtue of providing gainful employment for the natives abroad? (And driving costs right down and retail margins up of course).
Farming in the U.K. will be a rich man’s hobby, niche economic activity and maybe still a tax dodge unless things change. But the future for widescale commercial farming in the U.K. looks a bit shaky with the present crowd in charge as far as I can see. Just look at the indifference over our fertiliser plants if you don’t believe me.
And of course pursuing net zero by exporting our emissions is clearly govt policy. They’ve convinced themselves that there are votes in pulling a con trick a 5 year old can see through. Meanwhile, the natives are getting restless.
 

DrWazzock

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire
And of course pursuing net zero by exporting our emissions is clearly govt policy. They’ve convinced themselves that there are votes in pulling a con trick a 5 year old can see through. Meanwhile, the natives are getting restless.
The face off will come when the masses here can’t afford the imported food, can’t afford to fill the car with fuel to go to the seaside, can’t even afford a car in fact. To them, net zero and greening will be meaningless.
I passed a van sales site today. Ford Transits at £32,000. Glad I’m not a self employed tradesman.
 

DaveGrohl

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Cumbria
The face off will come when the masses here can’t afford the imported food, can’t afford to fill the car with fuel to go to the seaside, can’t even afford a car in fact. To them, net zero and greening will be meaningless.
I passed a van sales site today. Ford Transits at £32,000. Glad I’m not a self employed tradesman.
The masses can afford food that’s more expensive. Some in this country are gonna really struggle, and I have sympathy. But the real issue is the millions abroad that can’t compete with the affluence in this country, they will starve, or they’ll kick off big time. Meanwhile, the masses here will whinge and whinge.
 

bobk

Member
Location
stafford
The masses can afford food that’s more expensive. Some in this country are gonna really struggle, and I have sympathy. But the real issue is the millions abroad that can’t compete with the affluence in this country, they will starve, or they’ll kick off big time. Meanwhile, the masses here will whinge and whinge.
Plenty of jobs Dave
 

DrWazzock

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire
The masses can afford food that’s more expensive. Some in this country are gonna really struggle, and I have sympathy. But the real issue is the millions abroad that can’t compete with the affluence in this country, they will starve, or they’ll kick off big time. Meanwhile, the masses here will whinge and whinge.
The masses in this country could afford food that's more expensive but it would cut into money they presently spend on other things like fags booze and the obligatory foreign holiday or two and they really won't like that.
The masses abroad, as we already see in Sri Lanka are starting to kick off big time. But as usual its political mismanagement that has caused their problems not an inherent inability to produce their own food supply. People starve around the world generally because of political mismanagement, corruption, wars etc which make them dirt poor. Even if we double production or the price crashes, people in Yemen will starve because they have no means whatsoever of buying food and neither their government nor anybody else is willing to pay for it for them.
We will end up with global corporate agriculture with say Cargill producing millions of chickens in China at a rock bottom price but huge volumes to satisfy the Western obsession with "cheap food" all backed by Western hedge funds and incredibly rich "oligarchs". The incredibly poor will be disregarded as always. I'd be better sending a donation to Farm Africa than trying to produce wheat at less than cost of production. Problems of poverty abroad and here are solved by education and investment not by dumping product on them in the long term.
 

Pilatus

Member
Location
cotswolds
The masses can afford food that’s more expensive. Some in this country are gonna really struggle, and I have sympathy. But the real issue is the millions abroad that can’t compete with the affluence in this country, they will starve, or they’ll kick off big time. Meanwhile, the masses here will whinge and whinge.
But still find the money to have their car washed by a machine or some one else,
rather than doing it themselves with a few buckets of water and a chamois!!! :banghead: :mad:
 

digger64

Member
The masses in this country could afford food that's more expensive but it would cut into money they presently spend on other things like fags booze and the obligatory foreign holiday or two and they really won't like that.
The masses abroad, as we already see in Sri Lanka are starting to kick off big time. But as usual its political mismanagement that has caused their problems not an inherent inability to produce their own food supply. People starve around the world generally because of political mismanagement, corruption, wars etc which make them dirt poor. Even if we double production or the price crashes, people in Yemen will starve because they have no means whatsoever of buying food and neither their government nor anybody else is willing to pay for it for them.
We will end up with global corporate agriculture with say Cargill producing millions of chickens in China at a rock bottom price but huge volumes to satisfy the Western obsession with "cheap food" all backed by Western hedge funds and incredibly rich "oligarchs". The incredibly poor will be disregarded as always. I'd be better sending a donation to Farm Africa than trying to produce wheat at less than cost of production. Problems of poverty abroad and here are solved by education and investment not by dumping product on them in the long term.
its not foreign holidays,trainers or I phones etc that some on here keep on about -its rent and property values - to sustain these cheap food is essential
 

Macsky

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Highland
The problem is the government don't want them spending all their money on food, as they want economic growth of people buying new cars etc...... While at the same time trying to sound sincere on climate change. I can't honestly think of many decent politicians left.🤔
Bang on, most of the economy exists as a direct consequence of freely available and cheap food.
 

Lowland1

Member
Mixed Farmer
I can see a possible direction favoured by the government could be that they encourage poorer countries to grow our food for us so all the nasty smells, slow tractors, pesticides and “animal cruelty” is out of sight out of mind. This leaves the U.K. to carry on pursuing the greening agenda, rewilding, tourism, badger sympathisers, net zero, financial services etc.
All wrong in my view but I could see it happening. I’d say the @Lowland1 model is what is seen as the way forward. Making a virtue of providing gainful employment for the natives abroad? (And driving costs right down and retail margins up of course).
Farming in the U.K. will be a rich man’s hobby, niche economic activity and maybe still a tax dodge unless things change. But the future for widescale commercial farming in the U.K. looks a bit shaky with the present crowd in charge as far as I can see. Just look at the indifference over our fertiliser plants if you don’t believe me.
We are growing premium veg for the UK not corn or cabbages what we send is a drop in the ocean. My biggest problem comes in the off season when UK growers get preference and better prices we are scratching round to keep people on and everything going so if the UK wants to stop planting I'm all for it but they won't. Wheat prices here are £300 tonne+ and with one bag of 40%N6%S I can get 2.5 tonne an acre so i'm buying a combine and drilling wheat during the UK summer which gives UK farmers a chance to put in some beans and broccoli because I won't be acting as a backup this summer. UK/EU policy has been stupid and the UKs continues to be stupid but higher crop prices give farmers the chance to get off the hand out treadmill and do what they want, if they want . My Dad used to whine like mad about filling in his IACS forms but the truth of it was a bit of paperwork and they gave you money brilliant. My small farm in UK won't be growing trees it will be growing crops like it should be half this forum seems to be what can we get out the Government and the other about how the Government doesn't care. If you want their cash you have to follow their rules. He who pays the piper etc... Farms have got bigger it is a fact that's unlikely to change but remove the Government and you might find that without their handouts they can fail too. Forget ELMS etc and embrace the free market and don't worry about high fertiliser prices because if nobody's buying they won't stay high for long.
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 78 42.9%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 63 34.6%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 30 16.5%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 75-100%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 5 2.7%

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

  • 1,286
  • 1
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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