The Farmers Fight

To be fair to the farmers, Iam, it was 50/50 on Brexit.

Oh, and thanks for clarifying about your group's opposition to planned developments. 😀

That’s another good post from foxie at 11.43 yesterday. It’s an accurate summary of the impact of Brexit and the policies of the last government. These contribute to the difficulties facing farmers today
It’s worth remembering many farmers voted Brexit and Conservative

Food, beverages, and tobacco: Scotland's largest export sector, accounting for a fifth of the country's international exports in 2021. Scotland is a leading exporter of food and beverages from the UK, including world-renowned whiskies, meat, seafood, craft beers, and baked goods.
Mineral fuels, lubricants, and related materials: A significant sector of Scotland's exports, valued at £9.1 billion in 2023-24.
Machinery and transport equipment: A significant sector of Scotland's exports, valued at £8.3 billion in 2023-24.
Petroleum and chemicals: Includes the manufacture of refined petroleum and chemical products.
Mining and quarrying: Valued at £2.1 billion in 2017, or 7.4% of all international exports.
Wholesale: Includes the wholesale of agricultural products, fish and crustaceans molluscs, as well as repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles.
David your comment is incredibly offensive to Scottish gransnet people.

paddyann54

David Scotland is nota region its a country.A country that has exported MORE than we imported since records began,We have a positive balance of payments despite our budget being cut by Westminster and now £6Billion LESS than it was a few years ago.We also have vast natural resources that WM pilfersand assumes they are theirs not to mention our billions they raise in taxes from the likes of Scotch whisky and gin .A wee bit of research would be beneficial then if you know the FACTs about Scotland you might…just might be qualified to discuss us

Most of Scotland food exports are Whisky, if you count that a “food.

Personally I think Scotland should be independant, not hanging onto Englands coat tails.

keepingquiet

She had just been to a party in the British museum with the Archbishop of Canterbury...

It was Ian Hislop that had met the Archbishop of Canterbury wasn’t it? ( and he told him what he thought of him, too).Maisie, posh? I thought she was incredibly funny ; in fact one of the funniest people on HIGNFY I’ve seen.

BBC verify has compared govt figures with NFU figures and said govt is closest. On BBC website in quite a lot of detail for anyone interested.

She had just been to a party in the British museum with the Archbishop of Canterbury...

Maizie? Posh? Were you watching the same programme as I was?

MayBee70

Allira

MayBee70

They just said on HIGNFY that Farages, another one out supporting the farmers, owns 3 million pounds worth of land.

I looked at that Maizie woman and thought "You really do not have a clue. Shame on you".

Posh, out of touch, no clue.
Her food arrives pre-packaged on a supermarket shelf.
Awful woman.

Allira

MayBee70

They just said on HIGNFY that Farages, another one out supporting the farmers, owns 3 million pounds worth of land.

I looked at that Maizie woman and thought "You really do not have a clue. Shame on you".

MayBee70

They just said on HIGNFY that Farages, another one out supporting the farmers, owns 3 million pounds worth of land.

I looked at that Maizie woman and thought "You really do not have a clue. Shame on you".

David Scotland is nota region its a country.A country that has exported MORE than we imported since records began,We have a positive balance of payments despite our budget being cut by Westminster and now £6Billion LESS than it was a few years ago.We also have vast natural resources that WM pilfersand assumes they are theirs not to mention our billions they raise in taxes from the likes of Scotch whisky and gin .A wee bit of research would be beneficial then if you know the FACTs about Scotland you might…just might be qualified to discuss us

They just said on HIGNFY that Farages, another one out supporting the farmers, owns 3 million pounds worth of land.

The CAP was designed to provide food security for Europe, each state had options it could choose in its own circumstances, even regions like Scotland and Wales had their own own differences. Now food production has no protection, it has to be grown to micro managed government specifications yet has no protection from imports, produced with with no environmental or welfare standards.

Few farmers make money out of food production the farm payments system has been more than the profit made in most cases for many years. My brother is the farmer in the family he makes 90% of his money out of 1% of his land. He started diversifying 30 yrs ago, half of his farm is out of food production, He’s seriously thinking of selling the machinery and stopping completely, because the cost of maintaining the machinery is more than farm crops make.

Why does the public think farmers should grow food for no reward.

Small farms were protected to a large extent by membership of the EU, France, Greece etc have lots of small farms so policy took that into account and subsidies were generous. After Brexit the Conservative govt continued with subsidies but they have not kept pace with inflation and farmers have been particularly hard hit by the rise in the price of oil because it affects them in lots of different ways, not just diesel. Liz Truss, who was head of Defra between 2014-16 was particularly against subsidies and believed that market forces should reign! I find it somewhat ironic that Conservatives have leapt to the defence of the "small farmer" they certainly didn't help them when they were in govt for 14 years. I think it would be easy to imagine a pretty cynical reason for the interest!
Small farmers need income and despite every farmer that I know having diversified (holiday lets, camping sites, fishing lake, meat and veg boxes etc) they are still struggling to make a living. In this area farmers are retiring and selling their land off but retaining the farmhouse. Their children don't want to scrape a living relying on subsidies. We used to have lots of dairy farms, now there is just one. This is a problem that has been going on for a long time it has not just erupted.

Dyson's accounts and profits are well publicised, I don't understand the likes of the Duke of Argyll land and tax.

Dyson and all the landed gentry, like the Duke of Argyll will still find a way round paying tax.

The NFU campaigned to lower drinking water standards so that farmers can put higher amounts of pesticides into waterways, consistently blocked Right to Roam legislation, blocked full ban on hunting with hounds, and turn a blind eye to its members hunting foxes, presides over a membership that takes over £50m government subsidies a year, lobbies against scale of agricultural food waste being made public.
No, I don't trust the NFU.

Dyson has a lot of arable land but areas of the country like up here where its just sheep with a little dairy are in a very different situation?

Wyllow3

What Dyson has done is impressive, but yes the investments were huge. but he has a real commitment to food production.

Still has to pay (or his heirs do) his IHT

But my question is really, is this sort of farming replicable by a variety of farm sizes or can it only be achieved on a large scale and by having the wealth to invest in it?

What Dyson has done is impressive, but yes the investments were huge. but he has a real commitment to food production.

Allira

Control of food production means more control of populations.

What is it with mega-rich men? They could be using their wealth to help alleviate poverty but they won't relinquish power. They want to control.
Gates, Musk - what is their end game?

Where does Dyson stand on the spectrum of disapproval of rich men taking over farming in the UK?

Dyson's operation sounds admirable but I imagine that the initial investment he made would be far out of the reach of small farmers.

Is it only achievable on a large scale? Can it be adapted to suit small units and be equally profitable?

www.wevolver.com/article/engineering-the-fields-dysons-leap-from-gadgets-to-agriculture.

As I have said before, this looks to be the future of food production if increasing production in a sustainable way is what we need. In which case the small units could go under because they are not viable.

I have to confess, like GG13 I would be against the prospect of Bill Gates buying up UK farmland. I 'm against any foreigners buying up our finite resources. But what about our native 'wealth'?

Allira

Control of food production means more control of populations.

What is it with mega-rich men? They could be using their wealth to help alleviate poverty but they won't relinquish power. They want to control.
Gates, Musk - what is their end game?

Good question and one can use the argument on a much smaller scale as I said where investors buy land for play or simply to hoard their money with no concern for food.

Can it be legislated? I've said so many times we need "food policy".

I agree about keeping as much land as possible in food production, and wondering about how it could be done given that on the whole only larger units of farming can produce food at prices pushed down by supermarkets and by imports.
Not so sure how! Just checked up how Trump pushed out local farmers for his playground golf course.

Bill Gates also visited Keir Starmer. 2022, The Melinda Gates
Foundation, the worlds poor is increasing