I bet you don’t want it out in the public domain
Martin Grantley Smith “moved on” / “retired”
- Thread starter warksfarmer
- Start date
i think a lot more transparency and accountability in organisations we all pay for is long overdue Will
Martins email is in the public domain following a FOIR and if ever there was a case where more transparency was required that is it
why exactly wouldn’t you normally post on here ? a place full of the largest collection of your levy payers every single day ?
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- Location
- Lincolnshire
So, why have you? Have you been asked to do it? What's your role? Are you associated with any of the Triumvirate Of Tainted - NFU, AIC, RT?
Speculation about individuals; their roles in a public office / quango; etc is almost exactly what a public forum is for. It's a job with a responsibility to the obligate farmer levy payers and open to public scrutiny.
Have you read the emails being discussed here? What's your view on their content?
- Location
- Yorks
Problem is such organisations don't like to engage directly on open forums because we ask difficult questions. They like to give out press releases and statements.
Think Will is the engagement director? So right person for the job to disseminate information on here.
Last seen 2 minutes since, viewing this thread, so is reading the questions. To he fair, Will has stuck his head above the parapet by posting. That's a refreshing change. Now to follow it up.
Fact: AIC have representatives on Scottish Quality Crops board.
Fact: AIC have representatives on Red Tractor Combinable Crops board.
Fact: AIC allowed imported grains market access with a simple pesticide declaration.
Fact: We ask for market access for UK grain with a similar pesticide declaration.
Fact: When we start asking for that market access route, AIC remove it as an option.
Fact: If we were to be given market access in a different way, RT and SQC would lose mebers
So, what have AHDB done to get us fairer market access. Are we any closer to a solution? Have AHDB given AIC a piece of their mind?
- Location
- Lincolnshire
Ok, so we essentially pay him to engage with us ...ok. Let's see him engage. Janet from DEFRA engages and has really done well and to much plaudits. Let's see the Ahdb engage.
- Location
- East yorks
The thing is adhb need to start working for levy payers otherwise there is feck all point paying the levy and it might as well be wound up.
it’s like the recommended lists full of new varieties that break down after a year and we now have adjusted disease values because it was wet last year wtf it’s about as much use as toilet paper
it’s like the recommended lists full of new varieties that break down after a year and we now have adjusted disease values because it was wet last year wtf it’s about as much use as toilet paper
- Location
- Lincolnshire
Send it to Victoria Prentiss and see if she's happy with the continued existence of the Ahdb.
- Location
- Lincolnshire
Recommended list isn't recommended for our benefit! Miller's, breeders and chem salesmen innit.
Goweresque
Member
- Location
- North Wilts
On the livestock side than arable though.
SilliamWhale
Member
Its not that appalling Will, AHDB is a publically funded body funded by farmers and growers (under duress). We as levy payers have a agreement with AHDB whereby they are paid to look after farmers interests (marketing, research, supply chain transparency
) in exchange for this compulsory levy. It works ok enough as long as farmers know they are not being undermined by the very people and organisation they obliged to fund.No one is looking to personally attack your employee however professionally there is clearly an awful lot of rot about the situation. We know our levy board has been colluding with Red Tractor (a privately run organisation with no legal imperative) about assisting them in maintaining their hegemonic stranglehold on the UK grain and oilseed markets and we have seen the email correspondence of Mr Grantley Smith demonstrating this. The depths of anger about this will not get better, it will get worse as more farmers become aware of it.
It should be manna from heaven for the AHDB to want to assert their vitality and reinvigorate their position as a respected levy board after the disaster of the horticulture and potato vote. By not working with us on this, the AHDB are working against us, -for example why don't you work with us to get the AIC to remove their compulsion on all grain in the trade being Red Tractor assured? It is clearly absolutely unjust and monopolistic.
I'd say to you, please don't allow your levy board to turn into the equivalent of the NFU whereby any legitimate protest is looked down on by a coterie of self interested committee members. Its a disaster for the NFU in the long term, and it probably will be for the AHDB eventually unless it gets sorted out. You can't take people for fools over and over again
Netherfield
Member
- Location
- West Yorkshire
Where do you think it should be discussed then?
To quote an old football chant 'it's all gone quiet over there'
- Location
- Lincolnshire
Having been to the Ahdb stand at cereals in times gone by, I think the England chant to the Swedes would be more like it. Find it on YouTube. Euro 2012.
- Location
- Hammerwich
a collection of people who pay your wages should not be allowed to discuss your roles and your jobs?
I think you need to take a look at who you work for Will or make the levy optional.
post 3 cleared up he wasn’t sacked. Prior to you posting. But should he have been? That is the question. We personally spoke about this. I think he crossed the line. As do many others. Not gross misconduct though, for a one off. In my opinion.
Will is a “ Engagement Director” and has just said he wouldn’t normally post on here
i would suggest that’s almost negligent given there is no larger gathering of farmer levy payers either physically or virtually every single day of the year
i’m genuinely interested to hear why he feels the 30,000 plus unique farmers that visit TFF daily are not ones he wishes to engage with ? ……….. who does he engage with ?
this despite him clearly being a reeder / watcher of TFF as i know most senior AHDB management are and therefore I’m sure more than familiar with discussions on here
i would suggest that’s almost negligent given there is no larger gathering of farmer levy payers either physically or virtually every single day of the year
i’m genuinely interested to hear why he feels the 30,000 plus unique farmers that visit TFF daily are not ones he wishes to engage with ? ……….. who does he engage with ?
this despite him clearly being a reeder / watcher of TFF as i know most senior AHDB management are and therefore I’m sure more than familiar with discussions on here
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- Location
- East yorks
The recommended list certainly isn’t for farmers
- Location
- Yorks
2,000 Canadian farmers can all send 30t each and load a 60,000t boat. They're allowed to access our markets by having one single set of lab tests done (approx cost of £1,000, so under £0.02/t).Its not that appalling Will, AHDB is a publically funded body funded by farmers and growers (under duress). We as levy payers have a agreement with AHDB whereby they are paid to look after farmers interests (marketing, research, supply chain transparency
No one is looking to personally attack your employee however professionally there is clearly an awful lot of rot about the situation. We know our levy board has been colluding with Red Tractor (a privately run organisation with no legal imperative) about assisting them in maintaining their hegemonic stranglehold on the UK grain and oilseed markets and we have seen the email correspondence of Mr Grantley Smith demonstrating this. The depths of anger about this will not get better, it will get worse as more farmers become aware of it.
It should be manna from heaven for the AHDB to want to assert their vitality and reinvigorate their position as a respected levy board after the disaster of the horticulture and potato vote. By not working with us on this, the AHDB are working against us, -for example why don't you work with us to get the AIC to remove their compulsion on all grain in the trade being Red Tractor assured? It is clearly absolutely unjust and monopolistic.
I'd say to you, please don't allow your levy board to turn into the equivalent of the NFU whereby any legitimate protest is looked down on by a coterie of self interested committee members. Its a disaster for the NFU in the long term, and it probably will be for the AHDB eventually unless it gets sorted out. You can't take people for fools over and over again
What have AHDB done about this since it was highlighted to them over a year ago?
Why can't we have the same, or equivalently similar, market access.
Why can't 2,000 of us aggregate a sample, send it off to a lab, and get market access?
I think AHDB expect certain things to default to be the NFU's job. AHDB ought to realise it's their own responsibility to open markets and run quality schemes.
Tom Bradshaw is chairman of the Industry Working Group looking into the grain markets unlevel playing field issue. Now Tom has become a director of RT /Assured Farm Standards. That doesn't work. You can't blame RT, they bring all the right people onto their board. All the people in influencial positions who can help RT juxtaposition themselves as indispensable. 'trap' farmers into paying up, with no way out. Make sure we can't have the non-RT market access route that ANY other farmer in the world can have.
AHDB need to take up the mantle and sort this out for their levy payers. Over 12 months and no solution. That's poor.
P.S. Nothing meant against Tom. He'd likely get criticised if he didn't stand up and chair the industry working group, or get criticised if he did chair it (conflicts as NFU so closely associated with RT, and it would be RT who lost members if UK farmers had a non-RT route to market). Rock and hard place.
But Tom is a very capable person to pull this off. We need a market access method for UK grain which gives us some sort of equivalence to imports, but is nimble enough to cope with UK farm size and a 29t load (vs imports by the boat load).
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I think Martin Grantley- Smith was or maybe even still is on a Red Tractor board ?
- Location
- Lincolnshire
Just little misconduct then? In public office? Given the status of the Ahdb? Perhaps we should be taking a closer look at the legal duties of these people, given its proving quite enlightening to look at all their emails.
It's time these folk who we pay get the message : if you're not actively working for our benefit, and especially if your shown to be working against us, then you are history.