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Farm Business
Agricultural Matters
UK Farming subs to continue until 2022.......MABYE WE DO MATTER??
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<blockquote data-quote="Goweresque" data-source="post: 3843298" data-attributes="member: 818"><p>I'm afraid you have that totally the wrong way round. Environmental subsidies are infinitely more politically acceptable to the UK voting public than food subsidies are. Rightly or wrongly they see food subsidies as money for old rope for already wealthy farmers, whereas environmental subsidies are seen as helping poor wee little furry creatures and endangered plants. The fact that a lot of the money for the environment would go to organisations like the RSPB and the National Trust who are stuffed with people on salaries many farmers could only dream of (plus pension rights of course) is irrelevant. The public don't see the massed ranks of well paid managers in the National Trust, they see Farmer Giles driving around on his tractor and think 'He's getting loads of my money!!'.</p><p></p><p>Its the consequence of rising wealth - people have more money in their pockets than they have ever had, food costs an increasingly small % of that income, so they don't value food very highly. And they do want to make themselves feel good by helping the butterflies and the trees. And at the end of the day what is politically acceptable is down to the whim of the voters, not some intrinsic objective truth. If the voters value environment over food production, guess what we'll get?</p><p></p><p>Edit: there's also the issue of chemicals and fertilisers - rightly or wrongly the image of farmers is of them plastering the countryside in noxious substances. So in a choice between paying for that to continue, or paying for that to stop, again, farming won't win.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Goweresque, post: 3843298, member: 818"] I'm afraid you have that totally the wrong way round. Environmental subsidies are infinitely more politically acceptable to the UK voting public than food subsidies are. Rightly or wrongly they see food subsidies as money for old rope for already wealthy farmers, whereas environmental subsidies are seen as helping poor wee little furry creatures and endangered plants. The fact that a lot of the money for the environment would go to organisations like the RSPB and the National Trust who are stuffed with people on salaries many farmers could only dream of (plus pension rights of course) is irrelevant. The public don't see the massed ranks of well paid managers in the National Trust, they see Farmer Giles driving around on his tractor and think 'He's getting loads of my money!!'. Its the consequence of rising wealth - people have more money in their pockets than they have ever had, food costs an increasingly small % of that income, so they don't value food very highly. And they do want to make themselves feel good by helping the butterflies and the trees. And at the end of the day what is politically acceptable is down to the whim of the voters, not some intrinsic objective truth. If the voters value environment over food production, guess what we'll get? Edit: there's also the issue of chemicals and fertilisers - rightly or wrongly the image of farmers is of them plastering the countryside in noxious substances. So in a choice between paying for that to continue, or paying for that to stop, again, farming won't win. [/QUOTE]
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UK Farming subs to continue until 2022.......MABYE WE DO MATTER??
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