Why doesn’t Britain value its farmers? This crisis has shown we need to think very carefully about how the nation feeds itself

[kiwi pom]

I agree that farmers are fairly well regarded by the public, that's not the problem. The majority of the public know that a truck backs up to the supermarket and unloads food to put on the shelf for them to buy. That is the extent of their knowledge of the food chain. They have absolutely no idea how a farm fits into that picture. I lived in the city for a good many years and some of these people are just mind boggling with their lack of knowledge.

I think you might give them too much credit when you say they know a truck delivers food to the supermarket.
You're right many have very little knowledge of where their food comes from, I'm not sure they need to though.
I'm not convinced that its a good idea to educate them either. The rise in vegetarians and vegans might be because people realised that, that nice cute fluffy lamb is fattened up as quickly as possible so we can chop its head off and eat it.
A little bit of knowledge may be dangerous.

 

[ajd132]

Another Article from a whinging farmer. Getting boring now.

 

[delilah]

Those who have read James Rebanks' book will know that, alongside being a pragmatic farmer, he is a romanticist, poet, dreamer (and I use those words as positives, they are part of the human spirit).
So what is it that he is talking about in that article ?
UK self-sufficiency ? I don't think so, he would have written that article even if the UK was more self-sufficient.
Farmgate prices ? I don't think so, he would have written that article even if his Herdwicks were good money.
He is writing about the things that have changed in the last fortnight - an awakening of community, an awareness of the value of food beyond its price - and of how that change has made people realise what has been lost in recent years.
To talk about UK self-sufficiency, and trade deals, is to miss the point of his article. He is talking, primarily, about the food chain, about community, about resilience. He isn't really writing as a farmer at all, but as an environmentalist and community activist.
He still doesn't say what he would do about it though.

 

[Lowland1]

Obviously i am looking at this from outside the UK however two weeks ago we were the supermarkets best friends. 'Send as much as possible we need it' was what we were told now we are told don't harvest we don't need it everyone has enough but could you please carry on planting as Spain hasn't planted and today i get told we really need you to plant more baby corn as India and Thailand aren't planting. No i don't think we will and i would advise anyone growing fresh veg in the UK not to kill themselves looking for labour plant what you can and a shortage should compensate you with a higher price.
And my son rings me today saying that they cannot collect the last batch of fattening pigs although they have been promising for two weeks because apparently there's no-one to process them. Because everyone's home on 80% for doing nothing. So now he has to get some more feed in brilliant.
Appreciate farmers don't make me laugh it'll take more than this there's plenty of food it's in people's fridges or in the fields or sheds. You are going to need a proper famine or the like before people actually work out food comes from farms not shelves.
The Supermarkets have made a killing from this and will manipulate this situation to their own advantage.

 

[bluebell]

its not just in the UK, why do you think young people wanted to come from say poland, rumania etc etc, because their old way of life is hard and poorly paid, the young people all over the world, if they can get out want to get an easier life ? how many small family bussnesses last more thean 2 generations ?

 

[devonbeef]

With regard to how much veg fruit etc in supermarkets is British. The reason there is so much foreign produce is largely the hassle and dam right bosshe ness of the supermarkets buying of our fruit farm and veg growers.Reject loads , Change minds on orders at last minute. Generally treat farmers and growers like dirt. Happy to buy it cheaper abroad from places where the workers are migrants basically living in slums paid peanuts and trapped in that state. As shown on Simon Reaves programs.He Ho we all cant see that, so who cares.

 

[Lowland1]

With regard to how much veg fruit etc in supermarkets is British. The reason there is so much foreign produce is largely the hassle and dam right bosshe ness of the supermarkets buying of our fruit farm and veg growers.Reject loads , Change minds on orders at last minute. Generally treat farmers and growers like dirt. Happy to buy it cheaper abroad from places where the workers are migrants basically living in slums paid peanuts and trapped in that state. As shown on Simon Reaves programs.He Ho we all cant see that, so who cares.

That's not 100 percent true we cannot sell to UK during your season except as backup. Seasonality is no longer a thing people want raspberries at Christmas they want to eat Avocados and Mangoes. Cheap labour is an issue of course but my workers go home with at least 2 or 3 times the local minimum wage. If you can grow beans in December have a go because you will always get more than i do.

 

[andybk]

Obviously i am looking at this from outside the UK however two weeks ago we were the supermarkets best friends. 'Send as much as possible we need it' was what we were told now we are told don't harvest we don't need it everyone has enough but could you please carry on planting as Spain hasn't planted and today i get told we really need you to plant more baby corn as India and Thailand aren't planting. No i don't think we will and i would advise anyone growing fresh veg in the UK not to kill themselves looking for labour plant what you can and a shortage should compensate you with a higher price.
And my son rings me today saying that they cannot collect the last batch of fattening pigs although they have been promising for two weeks because apparently there's no-one to process them. Because everyone's home on 80% for doing nothing. So now he has to get some more feed in brilliant.
Appreciate farmers don't make me laugh it'll take more than this there's plenty of food it's in people's fridges or in the fields or sheds. You are going to need a proper famine or the like before people actually work out food comes from farms not shelves.
The Supermarkets have made a killing from this and will manipulate this situation to their own advantage.

its always clever words with supermarkets , nice bite size chunks just for the shareholders to make everyone feel better , they will drop you like a hot potato as soon as they can source elsewhere and save a few p ,

 

[glasshouse]

its always clever words with supermarkets , nice bite size chunks just for the shareholders to make everyone feel better , they will drop you like a hot potato as soon as they can source elsewhere and save a few p ,

C u next tuesday sums them up

 

[icanshootwell]

All I know is farming was getting a right bashing from the likes of the BBC, vegan's Chris packham etc etc before the covid 19 took hold. News reports now, all of a sudden we have become heroes. Why is nobody banging on about cows sh!t ing anymore and the harm it does. I wonder if global warming is still happening now our planes are on the tarmac.

 

[SilliamWhale]

Another Article from a whinging farmer. Getting boring now.

I dont think he's whinging as such and it is an important debate to have as theirs no such thing as the free market anyway. But Im not quite sure what hes aiming at

 

[averageguy54]

I think you might give them too much credit when you say they know a truck delivers food to the supermarket.
You're right many have very little knowledge of where their food comes from, I'm not sure they need to though.
I'm not convinced that its a good idea to educate them either. The rise in vegetarians and vegans might be because people realised that, that nice cute fluffy lamb is fattened up as quickly as possible so we can chop its head off and eat it.
A little bit of knowledge may be dangerous.

You are right that a little knowledge is dangerous and that is partly how the vegans operate. They take little snippets of farming and insert those into the minds of willing individuals. That's the reason for farming to properly educate people with the whole picture, not just those 30 second sound bites that show the worst of farming.
You will always hae some who will go vegetarian or vegan, no way round that. That is an individuals's right to eat based on their beliefs. Educating them on the food chain cycle won't likely increase their numbers in the long term. You'll probably get a few that will recoil initially, but they won't last. Much like the people who see hot dogs made for the first time, virtually all of them swear off hot dogs. That lasts about a month or two, then they're back to eating them.

 

[Ted M]

All I know is farming was getting a right bashing from the likes of the BBC, vegan's Chris packham etc etc before the covid 19 took hold. News reports now, all of a sudden we have become heroes. Why is nobody banging on about cows sh!t ing anymore and the harm it does. I wonder if global warming is still happening now our planes are on the tarmac.

Yes, funnily enough my face ache feed was constantly full of trolling vegans on various ag sites. Now, absolutely nothing.
I wonder how many "converts" could be found in the meat isle during the panic?

 

[Wellytrack]

That is not a shock either is it? Have you ever heard a fishmonger shout "Stinking fish"?

Which reminds me of one of the best from a fishmonger. On the Black Isle is/was a fishmonger by the name of Mair. On the sides of their van(s) was "Eat Mair Fish". I thought that beat even my advertising of having the address Hazza Farm.

There was an old shop man in a town near by, proper old rural style shop, he would take on making all kinds of lotions and Potions. His surname was Feathers.

He had a baldness cure and on the label was: “If you can’t grow hair, try Feathers”

 

[Cowcorn]

Those who have read James Rebanks' book will know that, alongside being a pragmatic farmer, he is a romanticist, poet, dreamer (and I use those words as positives, they are part of the human spirit).
So what is it that he is talking about in that article ?
UK self-sufficiency ? I don't think so, he would have written that article even if the UK was more self-sufficient.
Farmgate prices ? I don't think so, he would have written that article even if his Herdwicks were good money.
He is writing about the things that have changed in the last fortnight - an awakening of community, an awareness of the value of food beyond its price - and of how that change has made people realise what has been lost in recent years.
To talk about UK self-sufficiency, and trade deals, is to miss the point of his article. He is talking, primarily, about the food chain, about community, about resilience. He isn't really writing as a farmer at all, but as an environmentalist and community activist.
He still doesn't say what he would do about it though.

Well said , a sense of community and leaving somthing for the next guy is sadly missing from modern society. Indeed many may call it whinging and talk about scale and efficent farming as the go about farming as many acres as the can get their hands on but the are not seeing the bigger picture. An old saying The know the price of everything but the value of nothing .

 

[egbert]

Sorry James, but you're as bad as the rest of them.
Your book is fantastic. In that article you write eloquently, as you always do, about the failings in the modern food system.
And then you throw it all out the window with that one line.
And once a week, my wife travels to the local supermarket for supplies.

What the feck do you expect him to do?
Be all 'Good lifer' and grow everything his family eats?

He farms in a place where you'd struggle to do much more than raise hill sheep.
I don't know the Lakes as well as my own hills, but all of our little farms used to grow a little bit of corn, and a few roots - I'm old enough to remember men clamping an acre or two of swedes and teddies for man and beast, and i knew an old man in my youth who could describe the holly headed flail with which the men of his youth had thrashed the corn.

But that level of subsistence farming is gone.
Whether hill farmers should try to recover it is moot - no-one much else is...certainly not lowland farmers who do have the options.

James is skilfully making points to the benefit of all UK farmers, and i applaud him for it.
expecting him to reinvent society is just stupid.

 

[egbert]

Another Article from a whinging farmer. Getting boring now.

whinging farmer? There's a few of them about. If you can do better, go right ahead.

 

[HolzKopf]

It's ok to blame successive governments for devaluing agriculture and horticulture, from the disappearance of the focused Min of Ag to the all encompassing Defra. The dissolution of the Marketing Boards and so on but we've seen a real shift of the way life is lived. In general 'no one' cooks, no one has time - and perhaps the majority of households have two working partners. We on here are probably the minority, valuing what's grown, how it's grown or reared and enjoying the fruits of our daily labours and our veg growing 'hobbies'.

The UK has three generations of supermarket trolley pushing families bred to want and enjoy 'convenience' from the Vesta curries of the '60s to the 'healthy option' ready meals of today - let alone McDonalds, KFC and takeaways on every street corner or shopping 'outlets'

It comes from the top - and this is where Government could change things - by targeted Business Rate reductions and education, education, education on where 'food' comes from, how it nourishes and what is good for you and what is bad. Set up dedicated and real support for farming life, prioritise it as the Industry that it is - we're always proud of our technical achievements but the softer side of the economy gets little championing long term. We need a sustained effort and it needs for Whitehall via our MPs to have the appetite to do it. Let alone 'the benefit of the countryside'. Drone pictures of people transgressing or pushing the boundaries on 'lock-down' shows people in the countryside - not kicking stones in a skate-park. Round here, our footpaths have never been busier - at week-ends they've been rural motorways. At the moment, all this is in focus for obvious reasons but if we publicised the death and immobility rates and costs to the NHS caused by obesity then that would present a similar picture.

We need a leader that would get a grip and practice what needs preaching. Boris the Leader or no, I'm afraid I still don't see one.

 

[ajd132]

whinging farmer? There's a few of them about. If you can do better, go right ahead.

I have actually read it again and it does make more sense to me now, I get it and what he is saying.
It is a somewhat romanticised view though.

 

[steveR]

Looks like Theresa Villiers has changed her tune somewhat now she is no longer in the Cabinet!

https://www.conservativehome.com/pl...agriculture-they-are-wrong-and-heres-why.html

In my defence I do not subscribe to the above website! The link was in my Google box relating to agriculture....