- Location
- Cirencester
The Red Tractor ACCS referendum
- Thread starter Clive
- Start date
- Location
- Yorks
The government set the laws, and they must be happy those regulations provide safe food. Otherwise they'd set more stringent regulations. Everything else is surely gold plating.
Is anyone saying government are allowing unsafe food to be produced?
Is anyone saying government are allowing unsafe food to be produced?
- Location
- Lincolnshire
Looks like best job would to build our own supermarket.
Not sure why I stopped the roadside spuds. Was probably my back, lack of staff and my customers dying but we never had any of this assurance nonsense.
Not sure why I stopped the roadside spuds. Was probably my back, lack of staff and my customers dying but we never had any of this assurance nonsense.
They have their shareholders interests at heart. So they need to make money, lots of money. They do this by getting customers to use their shops. If they don't supply their customers with what they want, they go out of business. Tesco etc have no God given right to exist. They constantly have to improve, change and move with the times if they are to succeed. As I said about 500 pages ago, there is zero chance of them accepting a reduction in standards, no matter how it's dressed up.
Those suggesting that legal minimum standards are all that's needed are correct in law. Most farmers customers want more. Often much more. But there seems to be a belief by some that you can dictate what you're going to supply without any consequences. This might work in communist North Korea, but it will NEVER work in a capitalist country like ours. You supply what YOUR customer wants or you don't supply at all. There is no choice in the matter.
- Location
- Yorks
Or set up in competition with AIC. Own scheme to audit mills and hauliers.
SilliamWhale
Member
Am I Red Tractors customer?
- Location
- Yorks
Our feed mill customers haven't any choice but to buy RT assured, because that's what AIC say they've got to do. Let's give the mills a choice, by offering them chance to buy basic assured crop, then see what happens.
Edit. At this moment in time, imported doesn't even need to be tested for pesticides, just a declaration from the merchant.
AIC are going to probably prevent that in future. But they've been quite happy with it up until the time we've challenged them. Funny that. They just won't want to give us what we are asking for. Wonder why that is?
- Location
- Cirencester
I wondered when you'd crawl out from the woodwork again!
- Location
- Lincolnshire
I’m pretty sick of this Thatcherite “customer is king” legacy. It’s time to turn the tables. The producer deserves respect too. There has to be some trust. We are not here to trampled and interrogated to the nth degree. A lot of things we are asked to divulge are nobody else’s damn business.
If all producers said we aren’t doing RT any more then what exactly could the supermarkets do about it? Stamp their feet? Throw a tantrum? No, they would just have to suck up it and be thankful for what they could get. About time they learned that lesson and wound it in.
If all producers said we aren’t doing RT any more then what exactly could the supermarkets do about it? Stamp their feet? Throw a tantrum? No, they would just have to suck up it and be thankful for what they could get. About time they learned that lesson and wound it in.
- Location
- Portsmouth
You supply what YOUR customer wants or you don't supply at all. There is no choice in the matter.
Red Tractor....are you listening, Stu says you have no choice, we are your customers.
- Location
- Moreton-in-Marsh, Glos
Hopefully RT would have to pay them to do it too!
RTs customers aren't limted to farmers. They sell the scheme to buyers. Each is pointless without the other. They have to balance one against the other. Buyers want more, farmers want less. If they get the balance wrong, they're finished.
As most commercial farmers are members, but only a limited number of buyers are, it would seem the balance isn't quite right at the minute.
- Location
- Moreton-in-Marsh, Glos
Quotation from
https://www.aafarmer.co.uk/news/sta...-to-engage-with-red-tractor-consultation.html
“Red Tractor is crucial in underpinning our brands; it gives our consumers the reassurance on production and environmental standards they demand.
Then surely it is only fair that those retailers and consumers should pay for it by way of a premium for that underpinning of THEIR brands
Choice is the missing link.
A basic scheme would give all the supply chain a choice not just farmers.
If RT is right and the customer is willing to pay for the extra they provide I will stick with RT
If not why would I pay to be a member.
A basic scheme will let the market decide what is and is not valued
- Location
- Cirencester
It would be a very short and narrow one!!!!
I would see that as very encouraging that the big retailers have clearly seen the noise being made on social media about this and rather than being told by the NFU and Red tractor how much we all love their scheme they can all now clearly see we do not like it, its broken, lacks any genuine integrity or consistency and is adding no value
Clearly, the message is getting across and that must be causing problems for Red Tractor, AIC, and the NFU................ maybe social media is not quite so irrelevant after all ! who would have thought it hey !
Perhaps it's the big retailers we should be writing and speaking to and not the NFU, AIC RT, etc who are not going to listen to a vote to make them irrelevant no matter how loud we shout?
Big retailers are behind fair trade and its clear current market distortion is not far trade - can we encourage others to follow Sainsbury's lead if we co-sign letters to them?
The supermarket that would commit to a lowering of standards (sprayer testing every 3 years instead of once a year for example) does not currently exist. You need to set up your own "legal minimum standard" supermarket and see how that goes. There certainly seem to be lots of willing suppliers on here. All you need is willing customers!