Having a discussion last night with some friends about the power of the NFU or lack thereof.
i have thought for a while now they mostly focus on the wrong things. For example, lobbying the government to stop imports not grown to our standards (this is utterly impossible waste of time and will never happen, they are commodities) rather than sorting out red tractor/AIC and the extra burden put onto us for no benefit. Imagine telling a Ukrainian farmer they need a red tractor sticker to export their wheat to the uk! Another example is social media campaigns for British food which basically seemed to be aimed at farmers, and is just a load of NFU type farmers tagging and congratulating each other.
in my opinion the NFU are too focused on the agricultural industry in general, rather than farmers. The wider industry extracts money from farmers and gets no questioning or opposition. Be it red tractor, fertiliser cartels, chemical being all supplied through 5 companies, questionable serviced agronomy, contracts where you are forced to buy inputs in order to grow the crop, processors putting in questionable claims on loads, wheat having to be a certain moisture when being higher is absolutely no issue.
An example: CF fertiliser for years have been demonising and lobbying against urea fertiliser, based on science we know is flawed and out of date, to the point where it was very nearly banned in the UK. The NFU acted like this was a win for them. It is not. They should have aggressively stamped out CF fertilisers mis-truths years ago, it should never have got to the point where it was nearly banned. Instead the NFU have CF sponsor their AGM.
i guess my point is that I think the NFU need to become aggressive, stop being overly pally with the wider industry as they are not the ones they are meant to represent and start truly fighting for farmers.
I think the NFU does do some good work, but have lost the path of who they truly represent. This is why I am no longer a member.
what do others think the NFU should be focusing on?
i have thought for a while now they mostly focus on the wrong things. For example, lobbying the government to stop imports not grown to our standards (this is utterly impossible waste of time and will never happen, they are commodities) rather than sorting out red tractor/AIC and the extra burden put onto us for no benefit. Imagine telling a Ukrainian farmer they need a red tractor sticker to export their wheat to the uk! Another example is social media campaigns for British food which basically seemed to be aimed at farmers, and is just a load of NFU type farmers tagging and congratulating each other.
in my opinion the NFU are too focused on the agricultural industry in general, rather than farmers. The wider industry extracts money from farmers and gets no questioning or opposition. Be it red tractor, fertiliser cartels, chemical being all supplied through 5 companies, questionable serviced agronomy, contracts where you are forced to buy inputs in order to grow the crop, processors putting in questionable claims on loads, wheat having to be a certain moisture when being higher is absolutely no issue.
An example: CF fertiliser for years have been demonising and lobbying against urea fertiliser, based on science we know is flawed and out of date, to the point where it was very nearly banned in the UK. The NFU acted like this was a win for them. It is not. They should have aggressively stamped out CF fertilisers mis-truths years ago, it should never have got to the point where it was nearly banned. Instead the NFU have CF sponsor their AGM.
i guess my point is that I think the NFU need to become aggressive, stop being overly pally with the wider industry as they are not the ones they are meant to represent and start truly fighting for farmers.
I think the NFU does do some good work, but have lost the path of who they truly represent. This is why I am no longer a member.
what do others think the NFU should be focusing on?