Help to Farmers

[Elliot Sykes]

Hello,

I want to better understand farmers problems with this account:

How much waste do you produce? Is this food waste edible / saleable? How is it used? (Profit? - you probably laugh at this!)

Do you make a fair profit from the supermarket? Why / why not?

What are the benefits / drawbacks of other more direct to consumer points of sale such as farm shops / PYO / Farmers markets? Is this the future...?

Many thanks

 

[melted welly]

Hello,

I want to better understand farmers problems with this account:

How much waste do you produce? Is this food waste edible / saleable? How is it used? (Profit? - you probably laugh at this!)

Do you make a fair profit from the supermarket? Why / why not?

What are the benefits / drawbacks of other more direct to consumer points of sale such as farm shops / PYO / Farmers markets? Is this the future...?

Many thanks

We don’t produce waste.

On farm food waste is a term made up by retail to divert attention away from the unsustainable supply chain model they have created.

 

[onesiedale]

Hello,

I want to better understand farmers problems with this account:

How much waste do you produce? Is this food waste edible / saleable? How is it used? (Profit? - you probably laugh at this!)

Do you make a fair profit from the supermarket? Why / why not?

What are the benefits / drawbacks of other more direct to consumer points of sale such as farm shops / PYO / Farmers markets? Is this the future...?

Many thanks

In answer to your question;
pretty much all of the food produced on farms is edible. Often it is only unsaleable because the buyer has chosen not to take it.
At this point the produce is then diverted to a much less profitable food chain, usually livestock feed.
The benefits of more direct to consumer points of sale are huge to the consumer. There will be resilience, competition, better value and more connections with producers and a stronger local economy. Money will stay in the locality.
The challenge is that the current food system relies on a fossil fuel driven economy, where food is transported big distances by road to distribution centres that require on 'Just In Time' management. Our road network is simply a massive food store!
If you look at it as a whole, it's an impressive feat of organisational skill ..... or is it simply a control mechanism by the cartel?
I'll leave you to answer that one @delilah

 

[delilah]

Hello,

I want to better understand farmers problems with this account:

How much waste do you produce? Is this food waste edible / saleable? How is it used? (Profit? - you probably laugh at this!)

Do you make a fair profit from the supermarket? Why / why not?

What are the benefits / drawbacks of other more direct to consumer points of sale such as farm shops / PYO / Farmers markets? Is this the future...?

Many thanks

Students posting at 1 in the morning, always dangerous.

What is it you wish to know, specifically ?

 

[Elliot Sykes]

We don’t produce waste.

On farm food waste is a term made up by retail to divert attention away from the unsustainable supply chain model they have created.

I agree that shortening the food chain would help. If I may play devil's advocate, according to gov.uk 15% of food waste in 2021 was produced by farms. What waste are they blaming you for?

 

[Elliot Sykes]

Students posting at 1 in the morning, always dangerous.

What is it you wish to know, specifically ?

Thank you for asking. I'd like to know:

a) If farmers profits can be boosted by better waste management (more food on plates) e.g. by less strict rules on rejecting produce such as the water % of the crop

b) If farmers profits can be boosted by reducing the painstaking food chain (my understanding is farmers --> processors --> manufacturers --> distributers / storage --> retailers --> consumers)

c) If, because of B, real wholefoods can become more accessible / affordable to the consumer

 

[Elliot Sykes]

In answer to your question;
pretty much all of the food produced on farms is edible. Often it is only unsaleable because the buyer has chosen not to take it.
At this point the produce is then diverted to a much less profitable food chain, usually livestock feed.
The benefits of more direct to consumer points of sale are huge to the consumer. There will be resilience, competition, better value and more connections with producers and a stronger local economy. Money will stay in the locality.
The challenge is that the current food system relies on a fossil fuel driven economy, where food is transported big distances by road to distribution centres that require on 'Just In Time' management. Our road network is simply a massive food store!
If you look at it as a whole, it's an impressive feat of organisational skill ..... or is it simply a control mechanism by the cartel?
I'll leave you to answer that one @delilah

Thank you onesiedale for this valuable insight. The local economy is in my opinion what we must strive to maintain.

You mentioned the benefits of direct to consumer points of sale to the consumer. Does this method also help reduce waste and benefit the farmer?

Thanks again.

 

[melted welly]

I agree that shortening the food chain would help. If I may play devil's advocate, according to gov.uk 15% of food waste in 2021 was produced by farms. What waste are they blaming you for?

This press release.

Hidden Waste report shines light on UK food waste

WWF and Tesco call on governments and the food industry to back farmers in measuring, reporting and reducing waste.

www.wwf.org.uk

From this report.

https://www.wwf.org.uk/sites/default/files/2022-10/WWF-UK%20HIDDEN%20WASTE%20REPORT%202022_2.pdf

I’ve got stuff to do so not going through it, but here’s some excerpts:

“Embedded within the food waste occurring on farms in countries we import from is the land use and deforestation that farming practices incur. For imports into the UK, primary production waste was accountable for 16,600 km2 per year. Of these, 44% came from Fruit and Vegetables, 27% came from Meat and Animal Products, 20% came from Cereals and Pulses, and 8% came from Roots, Tubers and Oil Crops. For the combined UK production and imports, the total land use associated with waste in primary production are 26,000 km2 per year. 63% of this impact is associated with UK imports, with the remaining 37% associated with UK production.”

What does that even mean? “Land use associated with waste” and what purpose does it serve? Other than to associate imported food (with higher levels of wastage) with UK production?


“Waste associated with primary production abroad linked to UK food imports is nearly double that associated
with UK production (see Table 3). In total, over 6 million tonnes of food waste occur, mostly through food sourced from the rest of Europe, with in-field waste accounting for 41% (2.4 million tonnes), and post-harvest waste
59% (3.6 million tonnes). The higher proportion of post-harvest waste associated with imports compared with
UK production waste is accounted for by the high volume of fruit and vegetables that the UK imports. Overall, food waste in primary production associated with UK food supply (home production and imports) amounts to
9.3 million tonnes, roughly equivalent to the total amount of post-farm gate food waste in the UK, including
from household sources.”

So, as much “waste” occurs on UK farms as does in the rest of the supply chain. Given that once the produce leaves the farm, it is in completely controllable environments, then that is surely a bigger issue and more down to poor management than crops rotted or spoiled by waterlogging or damaged by frost where the grower is at the mercy of Mother Nature.

 

[mixedfmr]

I agree that shortening the food chain would help. If I may play devil's advocate, according to gov.uk 15% of food waste in 2021 was produced by farms. What waste are they blaming you for?

We as primary producer cant afford to PRODUCE waste
Whatever doesnt make the grade as an out sale, is consumed on farm, or someone elses farm
We dont do waste,
Even Veg, smalls or damaged has been fed to stock direct or put in a silage clamp
As others have put it more imformatively
WASTE COMES WHEN IT LEAVES THE FARM

 

[delilah]

Thank you for asking. I'd like to know:

a) If farmers profits can be boosted by better waste management (more food on plates) e.g. by less strict rules on rejecting produce such as the water % of the crop

b) If farmers profits can be boosted by reducing the painstaking food chain (my understanding is farmers --> processors --> manufacturers --> distributers / storage --> retailers --> consumers)

c) If, because of B, real wholefoods can become more accessible / affordable to the consumer

Your study area is too broad. Do you wish to look into 'waste' in the food chain, or 'fairness' in the food system ?

 

[davidroberts30]

I agree that shortening the food chain would help. If I may play devil's advocate, according to gov.uk 15% of food waste in 2021 was produced by farms. What waste are they blaming you for?

dont believe what the government wants you to hear....
all food is produced by farmers so the government say the waste is produced as we produce it.....
no mention of the supermarkets rejecting it etc for being wrong shape wrong size etc

 

[Boysground]

There are times when i just don’t understand the mentality of people.

So @Elliot Sykes i am both a dairy and arable farmer both selling to processors. I know you think we should all be selling to farm shops but believe me when I say that i don’t know of one that wants to buy 5 million litres of milk from me and bottle it to sell in their shop each year. I need to make a profit so every litre that is saleable goes in the tank, the small amount that i can’t sell is fed to calves so that they will become my replacement animals. Therefore my waste milk is zero!! The same goes for my grain, i have just loaded a truck of wheat in a few hours that will be made into animal feed. Everything that comes off a field here is either sold or fed so no waste.

I am sure we all waste as little as possible, every little bit that is not sold hits the profit. Do a little more research.

Bg

 

[onesiedale]

In fairness, I think the OP is only on here asking the questions because the information he has received has made him wonder how we can waste 15% of our food on farms and if there is some logical way to mitigate that. .
Unfortunately, the OP is in a minority when it comes to questioning "official stats" . If more were like him then I think the short comings in the broken food system would be exposed much more and we would all be better off. Direct sales or not.

 

[DaveGrohl]

I’d just make a general point that veg etc that’s been cancelled by a supermarket on a whim, that stays in the field and rots, isn’t actually waste once you engage your brain. It’s a feast for the microbes, flora and fauna that get to work cycling that carbon-containing crop enriching the soil and cycling all that carbon into something valuable in the process. It’s beyond the comprehension of the bean counters though.

It’s only viewed as waste if you’re a bureaucrat working for the supermarkets or the govt.

 

[DaveGrohl]

Another example; straw. Do you chop it behind the combine or bale it (not for sale)? Waste. Use it to bed or feed cattle over winter shed muck. Waste. Spread it on a field? Waste. None of this is actually waste though. None of it. WWF and the supermarkets/govt view it all as waste though. They’re morons.

Sell that straw to a renewable incinerator like Drax or whoever and it’s suddenly magically become a "renewable fuel" and is driving down carbon emissions for the UK. Except it isn’t actually. It isn’t driving anything down as it’s still putting CO2 into the atmosphere. Now that could be considered waste. The fact that it’s cycling carbon isn’t reducing the UK’s carbon emissions, it’s just not adding to it.

Oh, and guess what? To get that straw to Drax or whoever, requires burning fossil fuels by the trucks taking it there. If it stays on my farm then I’m the one reducing our carbon footprint by not burning truck diesel. Or buying in yet more manufactured nitrogen which is a huge emitter. But no, muck is waste apparently

 

[Bogweevil]

Food waste on farms is complicated and there is no easy answer. Agriculture is part of the natural world affected by weather, pests, diseases and weeds and quantity/quality of animal/plant production is highly variable. Add to this a food system that gives disproportionate power to buyers and you have a recipe for complexity and uncertainty.

An illustrative example is this study of strawberries and lettuces, highly perishable crops notorious for high levels of waste: https://www.google.com/url?q=https:...YQFnoECAgQAw&usg=AOvVaw0cFVH-eBw3W4iEnbCgOBYl

Highly perishable horticultural crops make up 58% of waste on farm despite being only about 10% of agricultural industry.

Consumers have more agency in avoiding waste.70% of uk food waste (total 42mt) is in the home with according to some (questionable) estimates 1.6mt of farm waste.

Read a detailed report from the parliamentary library this sprring: https://www.google.com/url?q=https:...0QFnoECAYQAg&usg=AOvVaw0M92IV85dtPo5dngeAsf3_