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The Farmers Fight

(793 Posts)
Sarnia Mon 18-Nov-24 08:46:41

Infuriated farmers will be protesting against Labour's 'Tractor Tax' opposite Downing Street tomorrow. They are being asked not to bring farm machinery but I hope they clutter up Whitehall with every tractor and combine harvester they can lay their hands on. Reeves claims 'only' 20% of farms will be affected by her latest smash and grab raid but economists say it is nearer 70%. Has it not figured in her brain that if farmers, who already struggle to make ends meet, chuck in the towel, there will be a serious food shortage?

petal53 Sat 23-Nov-24 16:55:01

I don’t wear a Barbour jacket but I do call the toilet the loo.
I have some family heirlooms but I don’t have any antiques (I’m not sure anyone in the family will want the heirlooms though when I’m gone)
I’ve got quite a lot of wine but I don’t have a wine cellar (or a cellar at all)
I always called my mum mum but I sometimes called my dad daddy

Am I posh?

(I’m not a farmer)

David49 Sat 23-Nov-24 16:57:03

foxie48

I should add that it's very easy to put up agricultural buildings under the 5 hectares rule (just over 12 acres) and tbh once they are up no one is really interested in what they are actually being used for so I know of several farms that store all sorts of things from legal documents to wine.

“I should add that it's very easy to put up agricultural buildings under the 5 hectares rule (just over 12 acres) and tbh once they are up no one is really interested in what they are actually being used for so I know of several farms that store all sorts of things from legal documents to wine.”

Yes it’s easy for farmers to do other things, so who is going to grow the food in the UK if there is not a living to be made.

MaizieD Sat 23-Nov-24 17:27:09

Yes it’s easy for farmers to do other things, so who is going to grow the food in the UK if there is not a living to be made.

What foxie was pointing out was that farmers have been cutting down on farming and using their land for more profitable enterprises for quite some time now. Why should they continue with a business that doesn't provide much of a living if there are more profitable uses for their land?

foxie48 Sat 23-Nov-24 18:06:32

David49

foxie48

I should add that it's very easy to put up agricultural buildings under the 5 hectares rule (just over 12 acres) and tbh once they are up no one is really interested in what they are actually being used for so I know of several farms that store all sorts of things from legal documents to wine.

“I should add that it's very easy to put up agricultural buildings under the 5 hectares rule (just over 12 acres) and tbh once they are up no one is really interested in what they are actually being used for so I know of several farms that store all sorts of things from legal documents to wine.”

Yes it’s easy for farmers to do other things, so who is going to grow the food in the UK if there is not a living to be made.

I am stating a fact not a criticism. I was asked what farmers do and I am giving an example. If you read my previous posts you will know that I have consistently said that farmers need income and if they can earn more by storing wine with less effort than using a farm building to store grain, then that is what they will do.

Fleurpepper Sat 23-Nov-24 18:12:27

Well we do diverge. Maisie is not posh, she is proper Yorkshire and very funny.

youtu.be/U46jxG7JME8?feature=shared

Wyllow3 Sat 23-Nov-24 18:59:35

MaizieD

^Yes it’s easy for farmers to do other things, so who is going to grow the food in the UK if there is not a living to be made.^

What foxie was pointing out was that farmers have been cutting down on farming and using their land for more profitable enterprises for quite some time now. Why should they continue with a business that doesn't provide much of a living if there are more profitable uses for their land?

A point here is that it's not just small farmers who can "use their land for more profitable enterprises for quite some time now".
It's medium and big too. It's not just a "small farmers" crisis as regards food production with price squeezes by supermarkets and food from abroad. How can we move back to higher levels of food production

Allira Sat 23-Nov-24 19:48:22

MaizieD

^Yes it’s easy for farmers to do other things, so who is going to grow the food in the UK if there is not a living to be made.^

What foxie was pointing out was that farmers have been cutting down on farming and using their land for more profitable enterprises for quite some time now. Why should they continue with a business that doesn't provide much of a living if there are more profitable uses for their land?

Exactly!

So where will our food come from?

Not many people remember WW2 now, some may remember rationing of course, but DH remembers receiving food parcels from an Aunt in Australia.

Food security is of paramount importance.

Allira Sat 23-Nov-24 19:51:36

LizzieDrip

I thought this was meant to be a discussion forum, where different views can be aired -
but feel free to report me Allira if you believe I’m bullying you online.

Of course I won't.
It wasn't you in particular .
Better for posts to be left for all to read.

You'd think it would be let go by now, though. But no.

FriedGreenTomatoes2 Sat 23-Nov-24 20:12:44

There seems to be a coordinated attack against farming across Europe and even though they seem unconnected what they all have in 'common' is an indication that is linked to 'climate change' political activists. This cannot be a co-incidence.

Netherlands has damaged live farming by banning fertilzer, Denmark is trying to tax Cow emissions (both ends), which is not a absurd as some in the UK who have suggested 'nappies'; should be 'compulsory' for Cows and livestock.

And now we have a state 'collectivization' process to let the state take over farms by an insidious means of default inheritance tax. All of this seems to me a direction of the WEF, but I could be wrong, it may well be gross incompetence. But even so... it does lead to the same thing, high prices, reduced food, stupid net zero targets and future starvation, leading to a 'climate change'.

Allira Sat 23-Nov-24 20:27:07

But even so... it does lead to the same thing, high prices, reduced food, stupid net zero targets and future starvation

Depopulation? But not those who orchestrate this, of course?

petal53 Sat 23-Nov-24 20:34:26

I agree with you FGT.
I think climate change/net zero could be driving this agenda.
I thought previously in the UK it was about Conservative voting farmers, but possibly not. There does seem to be something of an agenda going on.

Jeanathome Sat 23-Nov-24 20:36:49

Who is coordinating?

MayBee70 Sat 23-Nov-24 20:50:13

I think this thread is going. Bit flat earth society’ish..

Wyllow3 Sat 23-Nov-24 21:24:03

There are conspiracy theories currently active amongst the far right particularly in Europe which are spelt out in FGT's post:

ie its all the fault of Climate Activists,
and Net Zero targets,
and government plots to collectivise land.

But upthread we have already looked at UK factors

ie

rising costs of land and reduced availability partly due to buying up for investment purposes or/and purposes other than food production as more profitable

prices farmers can charge seriously squeezed over a long period of time by supermarket price wars

all farmers affected by cheap food from abroad and changing consumer food habits

this has led to a slow and long term reduction of small farms going out of business into bigger units and has had nothing to do with state actions.

We've only just introduced

This doesn't mean to say that the shouldn't be a balance, but this is where the conspiracy theories come from. As for IT being introduced as some kind of collectivisation plot, words fail...

Wyllow3 Sat 23-Nov-24 21:25:35

In above post delete "We've only just introduced".

Wyllow3 Sat 23-Nov-24 21:30:38

From the Guardian

"In the UK, the campaign group No Farmers, No Food, which argues against net zero targets,

was started and is being run not by a farmer but by James Melville, a GB News pundit and communications consultant.

Melville retweeted a post from the former LBC host Maajid Nawaz that said: “Farmers stand between us and WEF’s desire for us to EAT BUGS, own nothing and be happy.”

Melville also shared a post with a conspiracist claim that stated: “Between Bill Gates, the CCP & the WEF, we’re going to have no private farmland left. They want you eating bugs.”

MaizieD Sat 23-Nov-24 22:01:42

James Melville is a conspiracy theorist. He was anti lockdown and an anti vaxxer. He is an associate of the woman who passed on the false story about the Stockport murderer.

He's another of these people, like Matthew Goodwin, who has become progressively odd over the years. I used to follow him on twitter, 8 or 9 years ago, but after a year or two the weirdness got too much for me..

I wouldn't set much store on anything he says.

Allira Sat 23-Nov-24 23:51:21

Jannicans

Hope Aussie polls don't get wind of that tax or they'll jump on it first.

There are no inheritance or estate taxes in Australia.

David49 Sun 24-Nov-24 08:09:39

There is an anti farmer agenda in governments, they think they can save the planet by cutting down on food production and importing it. That’s what the environment activists tell them and the fools believe it because it sells well with voters.

Food produces exactly the same emissions regardless of where it is produced and in addition creates more being transported to where it’s being consumed. So all the UK is doing is exporting pollution to make its own climate targets easier, in exactly the same way as manufactured goods from China.

It’s simply Greenwashing and making no reduction in global CO2.

ronib Sun 24-Nov-24 08:32:03

Not just anti farmer, but anti elderly and anti public schools David49. Wonder who will be next?
Labour government policies are despatched at speed with no cost benefit or impact analyses- theoretical socialism at its best.

David49 Sun 24-Nov-24 09:10:39

Many of the changes have been idealogical, the conservative rural voters against the socialist urban voters, which is exactly what happened in the US, rural US turned out and voted for Trump because they feared Harris.

However in the Mail the headline is £135 billion raid on benefits, it may or may not be true but it dwarfs any extra taxation from the wealthy is likely to produce.

ronib Sun 24-Nov-24 09:14:01

David49. I see no signs of extreme wealth coming under attack by Labour. It’s the middle class who are paying the price for socialism whilst the rich will get ever richer.

Iam64 Sun 24-Nov-24 09:20:45

The ‘middle class’, people I know remain relieved to have. Government that is trying to repair the devastation left by the previous government. It’s called giving a damn

ronib Sun 24-Nov-24 09:28:07

Iam64 my middle class friends can’t get their heads around it…. More like breaking the damn than mending. The devastation is only just beginning.

Wyllow3 Sun 24-Nov-24 09:48:49

David49

There is an anti farmer agenda in governments, they think they can save the planet by cutting down on food production and importing it. That’s what the environment activists tell them and the fools believe it because it sells well with voters.

Food produces exactly the same emissions regardless of where it is produced and in addition creates more being transported to where it’s being consumed. So all the UK is doing is exporting pollution to make its own climate targets easier, in exactly the same way as manufactured goods from China.

It’s simply Greenwashing and making no reduction in global CO2.

So what did 14 years of Conservative governments "do' to the farmers to leave them in the situation you describe? Which policies

We've been looking for 25 pages at market forces of different kinds that have led to the current situation and the Labour Party have not added any legislation whatsoever as the kind you mention.