"Sunak Summit" in Westminster - is anyone attending?

[Tarw Coch]

The inflation isn't in the production.

 

[delilah]

Well it isn't.

 

[Hilly]

“Lifts all ships” isn’t it?

Well id never heard it before but i thouhht it very good saying and bloody true !

 

[Hilly]

Think we all know the outcome, dunno why they’re bothering with a meeting.

Tesco et al; We’ll "work with" our suppliers to "limit the impact" of food inflation. We’ll do everything we can to make sure customers achieve the lowest possible price while safeguarding our suppliers’ livelihoods.

Translated; We’ll hammer our suppliers down on price (we’ve been doing that for a while now), thereby driving any remaining profitability out of the farming system, ensuring that the next food supply crisis will come round sooner and be more inflationary again. But right now we’ll keep prices in our shops up as long as we can to grift the maximum extra margin that‘s been made possible by a confluence of events that has fallen into our laps, enabling us to take the utter p1ss out of everyone. Bp and Shell are following our business model now, even they’re impressed at how we do this on an ongoing basis.

Sunak; righto everyone, thanks very much. Therese, how can we get our farmers to stop emitting carbon?

Strangling Geese that lay golden eggs is short sighted .

 

[delilah]

draft me a letter of any issues you want raising in parliament by our neighbour who is in the lords
just been chatting to him about this thread he will be happy to put points across

First things first, he needs to tell anyone claiming to represent farmers to leave the room. This is nothing to do with them. They wont want to go, as their paymasters in the room have instructed them to be there to take the blame. Tough. They will have to manage without their brown envelopes for a couple of weeks.

Then, he needs to explain that the food system today is reliant, more than ever before, on fossil fuels. Never has our daily bread travelled as far as it does today. We are eating oil (can provide countless examples on this, the calories of fuel used to transport a calorie of food etc). And that is what has driven recent food price rises; the cost of fossil fuels.

And that is why he needs to get the NFU out of the room, as it is the point at which they would jump up and say that it's all down to the price of fertilizer. No it isn't. All of the fossil fuel use in the food chain is the other side of the farm gate. Tesco's freezers burn more electricity than does all of UK agriculture (again, happy to provide him with the references for this).

Upshot being, any MP concerned at food price rises needs to go away and study the reasons that our food today travels further than it ever has. Do some case studies: An egg, a carrot, whatever. Then, when they have worked out why this happens (clue, it's market share), they need to put together a series of recommendations on how to fix things.

 

[Spencer]

Well id never heard it before but i thouhht it very good saying and bloody true !

It’s an old saying. Very true.

 

[betweenthelines]

Tesco have doubled their profits over the last twelve months. So have most energy companies

Sunak needs a fecking telescope if he can't see what the problem is.

 

[soapsud]

This 2017 chart (though out of date) shows how farm gate prices compare within the rest of the food supply/processing/retail chains. I'm sure there is better data post-Covid but I can't find any. If anyone has better data please post FAO @Will 1594

It's here at 15:45

N.B. The speaker, Henry Dimbleby, says in this presentation that this farm income also includes the BPS which is now half what it was 6 years ago. So given current food price increases, 10+% inflation, etc, many industry leaders and Defra analysts might fear that the entire food industry is dependent on us producers not getting our share of the proceeds. There is some talk here on TFF of landowners embracing ELMS and SFI whilst cutting back on food production, given the rising input costs against unpredictable and tight rates of return. This obviously threatens our country's food security and no doubt why Rishi Sunak is hosting his little gathering.

 

[Hilly]

Tesco have doubled their profits over the last twelve months. So have most energy companies

Sunak needs a fecking telescope if he can't see what the problem is.

He will be part of it i reckon, t was all covid was about was them at the top making a £££killing

 

[Steevo]

As ag subsidies decline food will get dearer, simple economics.

I don’t think they have worked that out yet.

Personally I can see plenty giving up. Less money available (BPS), margins getting squeezed (wheat £175 now but fert in shed at £750), plus rules and regs getting higher all the time, not to mention the risks of prosecution or court cases as has been seen on here.

More and more things are banned each year, and the job keeps getting harder and harder for less money. That will continue next year, the year after and so on.

Once supply falls, that won’t recover again. The country will have no choice but to import….and then we become beholden not just to world prices, but also the increased fuel costs of shipping that produce around too.

It could make agricultural support in the years gone by actually end up looking cheap! Frying pan, fire and all that.

 

[DaveGrohl]

This 2017 chart (though out of date) shows how farm gate prices compare within the rest of the food supply/processing/retail chains. I'm sure there is better data post-Covid but I can't find any. If anyone has better data please post FAO @Will 1594

View attachment 1109755

It's here at 15:45

N.B. The speaker, Henry Dimbleby, says in this presentation that this farm income also includes the BPS which is now half what it was 6 years ago. So given current food price increases, 10+% inflation, etc, many industry leaders and Defra analysts might fear that the entire food industry is dependent on us producers not getting our share of the proceeds. There is some talk here on TFF of landowners embracing ELMS and SFI whilst cutting back on food production, given the rising input costs against unpredictable and tight rates of return. This obviously threatens our country's food security and no doubt why Rishi Sunak is hosting his little gathering.

There was a study done a few months ago which broke down where the margins in the chain are. I’m struggling to remember any more than that right now but I was surprised at the how minuscule the farming margin came out at. Can anyone help?

 

[andybk]

The biggest issue,i will leave you to guess which is the farmer

 

[Steevo]

The biggest issue,i will leave you to guess which is the farmer

View attachment 1109773

That’s easy…

The lazy, large fat cat being carried is the supermarkets, agricultural supply industry, government, etc.

The weak skinny one holding them all up in their lofty position is the NFU. Fully supporting the needs of all of those organisations without question or even being asked to.

The farmer is currently not visible in the photo, but if you were to look underneath each foot you would soon see the farmer there having being trodden into the ground, not by the fat cat directly, by their own union representatives.



And yes, I am an NFU member.

 

[Clive]

That’s easy…

The lazy, large fat cat being carried is the supermarkets, agricultural supply industry, government, etc.

The weak skinny one holding them all up in their lofty position is the NFU. Fully supporting and the needs of all of those organisations without question or even being asked to.

The farmer is currently not visible in the photo, but if you were to look underneath each foot you would soon see the farmer there having being trodden into the ground, not by the fat cat directly, by their own union representatives.



And yes, I am an NFU member.

THIS ^^^^^^

 

[neilo]

First things first, he needs to tell anyone claiming to represent farmers to leave the room. This is nothing to do with them. They wont want to go, as their paymasters in the room have instructed them to be there to take the blame. Tough. They will have to manage without their brown envelopes for a couple of weeks.

Then, he needs to explain that the food system today is reliant, more than ever before, on fossil fuels. Never has our daily bread travelled as far as it does today. We are eating oil (can provide countless examples on this, the calories of fuel used to transport a calorie of food etc). And that is what has driven recent food price rises; the cost of fossil fuels.

And that is why he needs to get the NFU out of the room, as it is the point at which they would jump up and say that it's all down to the price of fertilizer. No it isn't. All of the fossil fuel use in the food chain is the other side of the farm gate. Tesco's freezers burn more electricity than does all of UK agriculture (again, happy to provide him with the references for this).

Upshot being, any MP concerned at food price rises needs to go away and study the reasons that our food today travels further than it ever has. Do some case studies: An egg, a carrot, whatever. Then, when they have worked out why this happens (clue, it's market share), they need to put together a series of recommendations on how to fix things.

Really, that made up freezer bollox again?

 

[Muddyroads]

Joke now really.
In Bookers again Wholesalers OWNED by Tesco ,bacon for example up again from £11.00 to £13.50 for NO REASON????
Dearer WHOLESALE there than in Tesco shop that is RETAIL???? FFS.
Fuel dropping, milk dropping etc etc but wasters still shoving up and up for NO REASONS??? And farmers getting blamed too???

Our Parish Clerk was in Tescos last week buying supplies. She was stopped for trying to buy 6 tins of baked beans amongst other things. The reason given was that the cashier suspected her to be buying for a business. If this was the case they expected her to go to a wholesaler (Bookers) instead. And guess what, they’d have been more expensive!
Whoever let that acquisition through needs shooting.

 

[Still Farming]

Our Parish Clerk was in Tescos last week buying supplies. She was stopped for trying to buy 6 tins of baked beans amongst other things. The reason given was that the cashier suspected her to be buying for a business. If this was the case they expected her to go to a wholesaler (Bookers) instead. And guess what, they’d have been more expensive!
Whoever let that acquisition through needs shooting.

A customer is a customer how can they question anyone?

 

[Tarw Coch]

Tesco have doubled their profits over the last twelve months. So have most energy companies

Sunak needs a fecking telescope if he can't see what the problem is.

Have they?
Could have sworn they released their latest profit figures a month or so back and they’d halved.
I was amazed at that.
Or did I imagine it?

 

[delilah]

Really, that made up freezer bollox again?

I have shared the references before. They are on the 'Agricultural Defence Resources' thread.

It isn't a 'pop at Tesco' point. It is given as evidence that the amount of fossil fuel used our side of the farm gate is minuscule in comparison to that used in the food chain. Do you have a problem with that being pointed out to MP's ?

 

[kiwi pom]

I have shared the references before. They are on the 'Agricultural Defence Resources' thread.

It isn't a 'pop at Tesco' point. It is given as evidence that the amount of fossil fuel used our side of the farm gate is minuscule in comparison to that used in the food chain. Do you have a problem with that being pointed out to MP's ?

Yes, you need a lot of fuel and people to collect process and distribute food to nearly 70 million people every day of the year. Transport and processing companies are looking to be less dependent on fossil fuels and become more efficient all the time.
I'd like to see how all those people would have enough food, without the industry that works in the chain outside of the farm gate.