Do we wish to be the 51st state, or not ?

[delilah]

The NFU currently have two significant campaigns on the go:

1) Opposition to the import from the US of food 'not produced to our standards'.
2) Support for the adoption of gene editing technology.

On the one hand they are saying that UK agriculture should remain distinctly different, as to do so gives UK farmers a competitive advantage in selling to a public that wishes to buy 'natural' food (whatever that is).

On the other hand, they are saying that UK agriculture needs to be able to adopt technologies that the public (rightly or wrongly) has concerns about, in order to remain competitive on the world stage.

If GE wheat, then why not hormone beef ? What is our policy; to differentiate UK agriculture, or to be the 51st state ?

Someone please explain, because i'm somewhat confused.

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Just because you're allowed to do something doesn't mean you have to do it

Lots of stuff is available to me to use, makes absolutely no difference to me because we run our business, not Europe and certainly not the USA.

No real difference between "growth hormones" and leaving a bull's balls in, and I have mine

 

[delilah]

Just because you're allowed to do something doesn't mean you have to do it

Lots of stuff is available to me to use, makes absolutely no difference to me because we run our business, not Europe and certainly not the USA.

No real difference between "growth hormones" and leaving a bull's balls in, and I have mine

For sure, that's decision making at the individual farm level.
The issue here is policy at a national level, UK agriculture plc.
Presumably such policy is needed or else the NFU wouldn't be running these two campaigns, they would just leave it for the market to decide.

 

[Kiwi Pete]

For sure, that's decision making at the individual farm level.
The issue here is policy at a national level, UK agriculture plc.
Presumably such policy is needed or else the NFU wouldn't be running these two campaigns, they would just leave it for the market to decide.

Well, they have to be seen to be doing something! ?
Why not get double the publicity for conflicting yourself?
Lobby groups have been known to do this before... it's their role.

Because it's really all about selling a perception when it comes to commodity, regardless of the fact it just goes into a big pool that the majority of people who don't really care, buy from to make food with.
(Hence the great efforts we go to to make stuff like red meat traceable, in case the burger patty someone chucks away is needing to be traced back to the animal it came from ?)

But really it doesn't make that much of a difference, things like going without neonics are a bother but having bees is necessary to our survival - who really cares what other countries allow their farmers to kill their landscape with? At least it isn't yours!

The main reason they're considering GE/GM is because the big corporations who own the tech also own the government's ear, and shape policy.
It's (again) just how it is, and the likes of the NFU have no real say in it - but in order to get funds, they need to make it sound like they might.

Perception, again.

 

[deleted user 837354]

Whatever the NFU want is irrelevant I'm afraid, far far bigger interests in play at the minute.

 

[Roger Perry]

Sounds like you are being manipulated to suit the mood of the moment.
The E.U. including Britain threw up artificial barriers using fake science to protect its' own producers over 30 years ago, now Britain is out of Europe its' OK to promote gene editing...........such hypocrisy. After slamming producers who used it you are now planning to use it........wow.!

You are also constricted by a multitude of regulations, due to these reg's you are under the false impression that your food is somehow superior to other producers around the world............don't believe it.

 

[deleted user 837354]

Sounds like you are being manipulated to suit the mood of the moment.
The E.U. including Britain threw up artificial barriers using fake science to protect its' own producers over 30 years ago, now Britain is out of Europe its' OK to promote gene editing...........such hypocrisy. After slamming producers who used it you are now planning to use it........wow.!

You are also constricted by a multitude of regulations, due to these reg's you are under the false impression that your food is somehow superior to other producers around the world............don't believe it.

The EU created those non-tariff barriers, the UK was sort of obliged to implement the same because of the risk of goods being imported into the UK and sold elsewhere within the EU.

Weak or even non-existent science for much of it, I agree but that is the EU for you. It has always been about protectionism.

 

[Roger Perry]

Agree with that, EU was always about protecting its' various industries.
The results of several decades of this policy are plain to see, stagnation, falling income and increasing debt (Pre Covid)

 

[teslacoils]

If we were actually a us state, we might get some half decent government backing.

 

[bluebell]

i think we tied ourselves to the US during and after the war imbracing the culture more than the europeans, maybe its todo with the fact that the americans speak or try to speak english ? imagine if they had adopted many many years ago, german or french as their first langage? Also we stood alone with america after the war against the russian threat with all the costs that , that cost ?

 

[Roger Perry]

i think we tied ourselves to the US during and after the war imbracing the culture more than the europeans, maybe its todo with the fact that the americans speak or try to speak english ? imagine if they had adopted many many years ago, german or french as their first langage? Also we stood alone with america after the war against the russian threat with all the costs that , that cost ?

Good 50% in my part of U.S. speak Spanish as a first language, rest just speak merican

 

[andybk]

Sounds like you are being manipulated to suit the mood of the moment.
The E.U. including Britain threw up artificial barriers using fake science to protect its' own producers over 30 years ago, now Britain is out of Europe its' OK to promote gene editing...........such hypocrisy. After slamming producers who used it you are now planning to use it........wow.!

You are also constricted by a multitude of regulations, due to these reg's you are under the false impression that your food is somehow superior to other producers around the world............don't believe it.

i dont believe our food is in any way superior to most grown around the world , it was always about a job creation scheme under Blair for a share of EU the cash for defra and R/P , along with their gold plated pensions ,
We as farmers have received almost zero benefit from most of the regs , environmentalists and tesco and those further up the chain on the other hand .....
all the regs are good in theory sat in an office , but if they were going to work more should have been done about imports of things like pork reared in stalls from within the EU first ,

 

[Henarar]

Well, they have to be seen to be doing something! ?
Why not get double the publicity for conflicting yourself?
Lobby groups have been known to do this before... it's their role.

Where is the confliction @Kiwi Pete

 

[Roger Perry]

i dont believe our food is in any way superior to most grown around the world , it was always a job creation scheme for a share of EU cash for defra and R/P along with their gold plated pensions ,
We as farmers have received almost zero benefit from most of the regs , tesco and those further up the chain on the other hand .....
all the regs are good in theory sat in an office , but if they were going to work more should have been done about imports of things like pork reared in stalls from within the EU first ,

The point I am trying to make is that whenever any reporting occurs in the British media about a possible trade deal with America the first paragraph will state that UK produced food is in some way superior to anything else.
Saying stuff like that does not make it so.

 

[andybk]

The point I am trying to make is that whenever any reporting occurs in the British media about a possible trade deal with America the first paragraph will state that UK produced food is in some way superior to anything else.
Saying stuff like that does not make it so.

i for one would like a trade deal , and bring all the gm and gene editing, you cant hold back progress for ever , all we are doing is getting further and further behind in world markets . Not a lot different to british car industry in the 70s and unions trying to hold on to old ways of doing things . mainly to protect their own agenda .

 

[Henarar]

The NFU currently have two significant campaigns on the go:

1) Opposition to the import from the US of food 'not produced to our standards'.
2) Support for the adoption of gene editing technology.

On the one hand they are saying that UK agriculture should remain distinctly different, as to do so gives UK farmers a competitive advantage in selling to a public that wishes to buy 'natural' food (whatever that is).

On the other hand, they are saying that UK agriculture needs to be able to adopt technologies that the public (rightly or wrongly) has concerns about, in order to remain competitive on the world stage.

If GE wheat, then why not hormone beef ? What is our policy; to differentiate UK agriculture, or to be the 51st state ?

Someone please explain, because i'm somewhat confused.

I can't see why your confused, it seems simple enough to me

 

[delilah]

I can't see why your confused, it seems simple enough to me

what seems simple ?

 

[Henarar]

what seems simple ?

Well if something is banned here then it shouldn't be imported
if we change our mind and un-ban it then fair enough import it

seems simple to me, don't you like simple ? or is this one of your lets have a dig at the nfu threads ?

 

[delilah]

Well if something is banned here then it shouldn't be imported
if we change our mind and un-ban it then fair enough import it

seems simple to me, don't you like simple ? or is this one of your lets have a dig at the nfu threads ?

That's not the question I am asking in the OP.

I don't do 'lets have a dig at the NFU threads'. I am a member and supporter of the NFU.
Why do I question the NFU ? Because I care, that's why.
If the NFU have a problem with anyone it should be the vast majority of their membership, who just pay their subs for the deals and keep schtum from one year to the next.

 

[Agrivator]

There are more hormones in a pint of beer or a cabbage, than in a beef carcase.

And even more mind-boggling, there are more molecules in a pint of beer than there are grains of sand in the whole world.