glasshouse
Member
- Location
- lothians
Call to arms
- Thread starter glasshouse
- Start date
a lot of sense spoken there, yes it probably is time for action
We are not anywhere near that yet. Many farmers have to much to lose to be willing to make a stand. Some no doubt are in a bad situation but looking around the parts of the UK I am familiar with many farmers have a huge 'cushion' of land wealth. I doubt you will see many of that category out there holding up a sign saying it aint fair. I think the last 50 plus years of EU / UK / big ag / corporatism policy have irrevocably damaged the fabric of the nation. The incentive structure has been corrupted and the effects also corrupt us even though most will not or cannot see it. Is it likely that blocking the M6 with some tractors and muck will lead to a wholesale dismantling of Red Tractor and the grip of supermarkets or a commitment allowing farmers to compete on equal terms with the rest of the world. Would we want that? I am all for change but I am staring at home.
Bu t in my view dont do it on a motorway Get the addresses of the petty tyrants in DEFRA and the EA and the Red Tractor inspectors and go and protest outside their houses. If they and their spouses and children had to run a daily gauntlet of farmer protests there would be less of this "I'm only doing my job " mantra as they oppress farmers
glasshouse
Member
- Location
- lothians
European farmers are rather more “ “together”
- Location
- JanDeGrootLand
I am afraid you are 100% right.
Serious change will only come if a series of Processors and a Supermarket chain or two go completely bust, and shelves get proper long term empty.
It would be extremely painful for all of society, probable massive public disorder, and a panicked government.
No- I don't wish that.
- Location
- Montgomeryshire
Why do you lump the EU in there? Most countries in the EU have used the CAP to maintain small farms, rather than encourage ‘big ag’. It is purely UK Govt’s interpretation of those rules that has meant that hasn’t happened here, nothing to do with the EU.
The shear number of small farms, and coherent rural communities, that those EU policies have encouraged elsewhere, can be seen in the numbers that are come out to protest, together.
If you joined a protest here, one of your neighbours would be looking for a way to take a few acres off you.
glasshouse
Member
- Location
- lothians
Yes
toquark
Member
Change won’t be farmer led. There aren’t enough of us and we aren’t remotely organised.
It’ll be empty shelves/rising prices which will be (probably a few years) downstream of the current misguided net zero and globalist policies which will spur the public into action, democratic or otherwise.
It’ll be empty shelves/rising prices which will be (probably a few years) downstream of the current misguided net zero and globalist policies which will spur the public into action, democratic or otherwise.
I'm not on twatter but I managed to lift the below off your post:
Farmers are being wilfully ignored and their livelihoods destroyed by dreadful governments obsessed with the crass logic of net zero and corporations trying to asset grab farmland. And that’s why farmers are protesting across Europe.
What else does he say ? Because that's not a call to arms, it's a whinge. What does he want ? Specifically.
What I found most interesting about the German protest was the level of public support at over 60pc
Would be less than 6pc here as the public don't really give a toss so long as shelves are full, bounteous and overall cheap
you really should try to find a way to listen to it first hand, i guess the jist of it is a respect for primary industry like farming , steel etc from government, rather than use those industry's for a scapegoat to replace with imported products so the populous can feel good in the knowledge that their country/state has a green economy. To be honest the more i think about it, the more you realise this EU/uk wide direction of travel will sort itself out , because the consequences of these actions will shoot us back in the foot rather quick i feel because of the shear scale of the lunacy
I would challenge the assumption that EU has maintained small farms in the way you suggest. Consolidation has happened in the EU just like here. I don't know the specifics of the effects in the EU well enough to comment with any degree of knowledge, but I do know personally more than a few who have had a significant helping hand in expansion of both their land base and production capacity through the EU support systems. There has been significant consolidation in the agricultural supply chains which the EU and national governments want and encourage through trade policies. I do not have enough information or detail to understand the effects of EU support regimes on a 3 hectare olive farmer in Greece versus a 3000 hectare arable farmer in the central massif of France, but I think you will see that the large arable unit has moved further and faster than the olive farmer. The EU support to small farmers is more of a 'social cohesion fund' designed to make the recipients feel grateful for some shelter from the forces I implicated. I noted the changes I see have taken place and suggested the main drivers of them without saying which one is worst or more to blame. I consider they cannot be isolated in that way but are completely interlinked. These forces work as an inevitable flow of events driven modern political thought and philosophy founded on WWII experience. I would accept that a lot of if not all of the original intent was well intentioned but it has just not turned out the way the political theorists thought and when the effects started to become obvious to see, instead of accepting the reality and as it were and ' being sent home to to think again', they doubled down and insisted more of the same medicine were needed. It is now demonstrably obvious that the more of the same has completely failed our societies are in a serious and visible decline. Nobody as far as I can tell has a coherent solution, partly because every one has a different version of the cause, so the problem has not even been clearly diagnosed yet. The fall out of all this affects us in agriculture no more or no less than everybody else. So I stand by the 'thrust' of my post.
I’d seen 69% reported.
You will prob be proved right, but the big pain will come in other poorer countries. Their populations will feel the pain while we sail on, kidding ourselves that exporting our emissions and industries was a great idea all along.
I imagine all of this will unravel waaay before 2050. How can it not?
- Tags
- children defra parts red tractor