twenty first century agriculture with a twenty first century environment

llamedos

New Member
A thought provoking article.

BREXIT provides a unique opportunity to reset farming policy. Under the CAP policy it has been expensive and often perverse in its impacts. Few can be impressed by the net result: high costs to consumers, inefficient land use, subsidies for land ownership and serious environmental damage. The CAP has seriously damaged Britain’s natural capital, and in consequence reduced economic growth. Without significant reform there is little chance of achieving the government’s objective – and Manifesto commitment – to enhance the natural environment over the 25-year plan period, for the benefit of future generations.

There is no good general case for subsidising farmers, especially for simply owning land. There is also no good general case for subsidising polluters, rather than taxing and regulating pollution. In the long run, farmers should – like any other industry – operate without subsidies. The right answer is Option Three presented above: public money for public goods directly contracted through public bodies.

Full article see:-

http://www.dieterhelm.co.uk/natural-capital/environment/agricultural-policy-after-brexit/
 

7610 super q

Never Forgotten
Honorary Member
What a load of..........

So all money will be given to National Parks, NT etc..... who subcontract farmers to do.....what ? :scratchhead:
 

Exfarmer

Member
Location
Bury St Edmunds
I think we are going to see a massive shake up in Agricultural policy and it will not be to the advantage of most farmers.
The public can see little advantage to seeing massive subsidies going to large polluting agri business.
Certainly until it sees the NHS and the armed forces well funded first. This will be a real problem for pig farmers as their stock will have sprouted wings. :)
 
Agree with the above, it is clear that in terms of the Brexit decision, agriculture is of minor importance in the minds of most government ministers. That is the hard truth of the matter. It is obvious that agricultural and food policy is of little electoral value and so clearly the NHS, Defence and Education will receive a lot more political interest because they affect far more people nationally and are more emotive.

As I have said for a long time, I do not believe long term that agriculture in the UK, or even Europe, will receive government support forever. With the UK leaving Europe, I do not see who is going to continue to cough into the pot to fund the development of agriculture in Eastern Europe, when it is already on a scale that is more comparable to others in the global marketplace.

I am somewhat dismayed that so many people are chiming in to talk about Brexit and the impact it might have on UK lamb exports. Any economist would tell you that lamb exports are so far down the list of priorities that they probably don't make the appendices in any trade agreement.
 

Billhook

Member
All of the article will probably take place until there is a crisis of some kind. The sword of Damocles hangs over the reliable supple of food to seventy million people each day.
Isis may find some dirty nuclear waste and spread it on grain growing prairies from the air, Putin may torpedo a cargo vessel or there may be a natural disease or climate condition which devastates cropping.
When the first bread queues start is when farming will become top of the political agenda, as it was when I was born into food rationing just after the second world war.
Then it was sod the hedges, couldn't care about the raptors being affected by DDT, plough up the old grassland and just make sure I have my daily bread!
 

Will Wilson

Member
Location
Essex
I agree (ish) with your above statement - If all/any of the above happened and we had to be 'self sufficient' ......

Where would we get the diesel from to run the tractors, the nitrogen to grow the crops, the labour to pick the vegetables the power to run the cold stores..... Because it is my understanding they are all imported.
 

Henarar

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Somerset
I agree (ish) with your above statement - If all/any of the above happened and we had to be 'self sufficient' ......

Where would we get the diesel from to run the tractors, the nitrogen to grow the crops, the labour to pick the vegetables the power to run the cold stores..... Because it is my understanding they are all imported.
and all secondary to the food
 
The govt are sensitive to the Welsh steel industry and it looks bloody awful.
No politician wants to be seen nowadays as the 'nasty' one, letting a sector go to the wall.
On the other hand it seems perverse that the best land gets the highest subs and the worst the lowest.
 
The govt are sensitive to the Welsh steel industry and it looks bloody awful.
No politician wants to be seen nowadays as the 'nasty' one, letting a sector go to the wall.
On the other hand it seems perverse that the best land gets the highest subs and the worst the lowest.

Let me tell you a sad sad truth about Steel.

The world as a whole manufactures about 1600 million tonnes of steel a year.

800 million tonnes of that is manufactured by the Chinese. Who enjoy working in a hot, dangerous and highly polluted low tech industry- because it pays a modest wage and that is far preferable than freezing or starving to death. Far better to work in a nice office in Shanghai shipping stuff around the world but not everyone can be so lucky in a country of near 1.5 billion.

The next biggest producer of Steel is Japan- at a modest 120 million tonnes. They are clever because they use modern facilities and also have some of the worlds largest forging presses- Japan Steel Works have an order book going on years for reactor pressure vessels simply because no one else can produce them.

The UK makes about 14 million tonnes a year.

The simple fact is that there is simply no point in the UK producing a single tonne of coal or a single tonne of steel- it is of no global consequence, it isn't competitive to use blast furnaces versus modern arc furnaces and it is dangerous and heavily regulated, for good reason.

The UK has to realign itself and try to get into value added industries, which by and large a lot of Brits do.

There is no future trying to produce coal or steel, when an Australian in a huge excavator can produce coal for about 2 cents a tonne rather than go down a hole in the ground and a Chinaman can work all day in a steel mill and make his average 6000 dollars of GDP per year doing it.
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 80 42.3%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 66 34.9%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 30 15.9%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 75-100%

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

    Votes: 7 3.7%

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

  • 1,292
  • 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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