Dispatches - Red Tractor

ajd132

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Suffolk
Farm size is an indication of declining viability which is driven by the corporate food system. There just isn't enough time on a mixed family farm to do it all properly and still keep the records up to date. Something has to give.

There must have been nearly 20 farmworkers in the 70s where I grew up. Now there is one and a one man band contractor.
You could say exactly the same thing about globalism and things like the EU…
 

Hindsight

Member
Location
Lincolnshire
Farm size is an indication of declining viability which is driven by the corporate food system. There just isn't enough time on a mixed family farm to do it all properly and still keep the records up to date. Something has to give.

There must have been nearly 20 farmworkers in the 70s where I grew up. Now there is one and a one man band contractor.

An interesting post. If there were 20 farmworkers in the 70's can I take it you consider that was a good thing, in which case do you have a view on the appropriate number of farmworkers there should be now in the village/area you lived? I come from a long line of farm labourers. None of my cousins nephews or nieces work in Agriculture now. I am just the remaining one vaguely involved.
 

Humble Village Farmer

Member
BASE UK Member
Location
Essex
An interesting post. If there were 20 farmworkers in the 70's can I take it you consider that was a good thing, in which case do you have a view on the appropriate number of farmworkers there should be now in the village/area you lived? I come from a long line of farm labourers. None of my cousins nephews or nieces work in Agriculture now. I am just the remaining one vaguely involved.
Well I don't mind not getting rich doing this but I would be happier if I wasn't doing so much of it myself. It would be great to afford to employ someone or find a partner to bolt on a couple of new enterprises. Although if I employed a full time worker at the moment, I would probably end up breaking even.

You will have noticed, given your family's experience and knowledge, how little the general public understand or care about food or farming. It's like we're becoming a different species.

I think it was a good thing with more people making a living on the land, they were all housed, went to the pub, kids at village school etc.
 

DrWazzock

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire
What’s happened is that local real working relationships built on trust have been replaced by very remote impersonal connections to our customers. Therefore it was felt necessary go have all the kind of third party “assurance” that we see now.
At one time my grandfather would go to Lincoln corn exchange with sample bags, meet the merchants who he knew well and do a deal. We wouldn’t know the owners of feed mills from Adam now. So how do we build a relationship of trust? We don’t. They send in the inspectors to check us over. I’m not totally in opposition to that. It’s the new reality. All I ask is it’s kept proportionate to the risks. And for me at the moment I’d say there is some considerable scope to take the secateurs to RT or even have another more minimal scheme that would provide a lifeline to smaller producers who, for example, neither have the time or even legal necessity to do some of what RT prescribe, particularly where it has absolutely no bearing on food safety and would not be asked of imports, let alone be possible for them to meet.
 

Hindsight

Member
Location
Lincolnshire
Well I don't mind not getting rich doing this but I would be happier if I wasn't doing so much of it myself. It would be great to afford to employ someone or find a partner to bolt on a couple of new enterprises. Although if I employed a full time worker at the moment, I would probably end up breaking even.

You will have noticed, given your family's experience and knowledge, how little the general public understand or care about food or farming. It's like we're becoming a different species.

I think it was a good thing with more people making a living on the land, they were all housed, went to the pub, kids at village school etc.

Hi, thanks for reply. Sympathise with your situation. A struggle.

Am not totally sure I agree that the general public do not care about farming. I live in a village in south Lincolnshire surrounded by arable farmland. I generally socialise with non farming folk - as that is who lives in the surrounding villages - and they all express an interest in what is happening in the fields once they know what I do for a living.

As to my family well my generation, so me and my cousins, mostly older, are all in our 60s. Our parents being farmworkers encouraged education and getting away from working on the land as labourers as they had done. And so my cousins are either retired teachers, bank clerks, servicemen or tradesmen - my brother is a welder by trade. Only I ended up anyway involved in Agriculture, and then as a 'hanger on'. And my family experience I can think of is mirrored by other similar families who accompanied me at primary school in the 1960's in my original Fenland village.

As ever, interesting times. H.

And the villages around me seem thriving with expensive houses, a thriving pub just opposite our house and a full school with waiting list. That despite not a farmworker in the village. And so that is rural life in today's South Lincolnshire.
 

Jackov Altraids

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Devon
Hi, thanks for reply. Sympathise with your situation. A struggle.

Am not totally sure I agree that the general public do not care about farming. I live in a village in south Lincolnshire surrounded by arable farmland. I generally socialise with non farming folk - as that is who lives in the surrounding villages - and they all express an interest in what is happening in the fields once they know what I do for a living.

As to my family well my generation, so me and my cousins, mostly older, are all in our 60s. Our parents being farmworkers encouraged education and getting away from working on the land as labourers as they had done. And so my cousins are either retired teachers, bank clerks, servicemen or tradesmen - my brother is a welder by trade. Only I ended up anyway involved in Agriculture, and then as a 'hanger on'. And my family experience I can think of is mirrored by other similar families who accompanied me at primary school in the 1960's in my original Fenland village.

As ever, interesting times. H.

And the villages around me seem thriving with expensive houses, a thriving pub just opposite our house and a full school with waiting list. That despite not a farmworker in the village. And so that is rural life in today's South Lincolnshire.

I think that is an excellent appraisal of modern life.
The subtle difference I would like to highlight is that while much of the general public may 'care' about farming, they have little or no understanding of its intricacies.
Agriculture is all about quite long term cycles and so many think that it should be possible to remove some of the less desirable parts without understanding that this often would lead to the whole cycle to gradually fail.
Everybody wants to have their [food] and eat it, as it were.

This wouldn't be such a problem if RT,NFU, EA, etc. didn't continually try to pander to that public ignorance.
 

DrWazzock

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire
There is though, something to be said for running your own business rather than being a number on a payroll. I have worked for others as an employee for 15 years or so. Not knocking it, it’s OK. But given the choice I still prefer to be a self employed small business operator.
What saddens me a bit, is there soon won’t be a choice in the matter. The regulatory, logistical and procedural framework is becoming “corporate” in agriculture. Well maybe it’s just the way of things but I think by going down the large scale corporate route we are losing something that made life a bit more satisfying, and we are losing that all round knowledge and skill that provided a balance and varied life and a certain sense of freedom. But never mind. Onwards and upwards.
 

DrWazzock

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire
I just get this feeling that nobody would be allowed to have anything “of their own” if corporate and state powers had their way, except of course for the very richest who seek to control it all. It’s all part of a steady drift : 40 year mortgages, zero hour contracts, then sell your home to get the state to look after you in old age.,The complete loss of “self” to becoming a serf/client/claimant. We used to manage alright without all that.
 

sodbuster2

Member
Location
North West
I just get this feeling that nobody would be allowed to have anything “of their own” if corporate and state powers had their way, except of course for the very richest who seek to control it all. It’s all part of a steady drift : 40 year mortgages, zero hour contracts, then sell your home to get the state to look after you in old age.,The complete loss of “self” to becoming a serf/client/claimant. We used to manage alright without all that.
Very true...we are becoming a communist state day by day sadly...
 

Campbell

Member
Location
Herefordshire
Its not just agriculture though is it!
Just look at retail.
Almost every sector of the economy is dominated by huge multinationals.
Its all the fault of the NFU and RT.
UK business has been 'for sale' for some time, we have something like 50% foreign ownership, by various measures. UK CEO's and directors are cashing in £m every week. Be interesting to know if the same business model operates in France or Germany.......?
 

stroller

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Somerset UK
I just get this feeling that nobody would be allowed to have anything “of their own” if corporate and state powers had their way, except of course for the very richest who seek to control it all. It’s all part of a steady drift : 40 year mortgages, zero hour contracts, then sell your home to get the state to look after you in old age.,The complete loss of “self” to becoming a serf/client/claimant. We used to manage alright without all that.
Its the great re set, in the future you will own nothing rent everything and be happy.......oh and make the big corporations even richer.
 

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

  • 1,294
  • 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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