The Farmers Fight

Farmers used to have to pay inheritance tax before 1984. Then people who don't want to contribute to society saw buying land as a good get out. Blame them perhaps, for what has happened.
Surely the right to peaceful protest is either right or wrong, not dependent on who is doing the protesting. Either is is wrong to put people at risk of missing medical appointments etc. or it isn't. Either it is wrong to disrupt the traffic or it isn't. Just stop oil were punished quite severely for just planning to disrupt the traffic. If the farmers are not dealt with equally then that could certainly be called two tier policing

Ilovecheese

Farmers used to have to pay inheritance tax before 1984. Then people who don't want to contribute to society saw buying land as a good get out. Blame them perhaps, for what has happened.
Surely the right to peaceful protest is either right or wrong, not dependent on who is doing the protesting. Either is is wrong to put people at risk of missing medical appointments etc. or it isn't. Either it is wrong to disrupt the traffic or it isn't. Just stop oil were punished quite severely for just planning to disrupt the traffic. If the farmers are not dealt with equally then that could certainly be called two tier policing

The difference is the Farmers have given notice of their protest, have had numerous discussions with the Met Police on where and when the protest will start and end.

The protest will be spearheaded by children on toy tractors, the various Farming organisations has urged farmers not to bring their farm machinery to the protest. So I can only assume it will be tractors which are road legal joining the march.

vegansrock

Two tier policing if they don’t treat the farmers and the far right the same as environmental protesters. I’ll be surprised if it isn’t a peaceful protest

They don’t treat the pro Palestinian protesters or the Just Stop Oil protesters the same either so it must be four tier policing.

David49

There are very few “conglomerate” farmers outside intensive pigs and poultry, most large arable producers are family farms that have taken over neighbouring farms to spread their overheads, usually they pay the owner a share of the profit from the crop quite often there is a loss.

most large arable producers are family farms that have taken over neighbouring farms to spread their overheads

A great many large arable farms do not belong to the families who farm them. They were sold for ‘lease back’ during the eighties to raise capital for modernising and expansion. The C of E and Oxbridge universities being two examples of the farms’ owners.

In which case it’s, cash rich, asset poor.

MaizieD I helped occadionally with potatoes as a young woman - then we could go out after and pick up some of the little ones for ourselves and after that the pigs came in and finished off the crop. We always called the little ones "pig potatoes"

But in those days my friend's dairy farm actually had a dairy, did their own bottling etc and then did their own milk round after that.

NotSpaghetti

MaizieD I helped occadionally with potatoes as a young woman - then we could go out after and pick up some of the little ones for ourselves and after that the pigs came in and finished off the crop. We always called the little ones "pig potatoes"

But in those days my friend's dairy farm actually had a dairy, did their own bottling etc and then did their own milk round after that.

Now the 'pig potatoes' are sold by the supermarkets, at a price, as 'baby potatoes' 😂

Autumn half term usually coincided with the potato harvest, I recall...

merlotgran

David49

There are very few “conglomerate” farmers outside intensive pigs and poultry, most large arable producers are family farms that have taken over neighbouring farms to spread their overheads, usually they pay the owner a share of the profit from the crop quite often there is a loss.

most large arable producers are family farms that have taken over neighbouring farms to spread their overheads

A great many large arable farms do not belong to the families who farm them. They were sold for ‘lease back’ during the eighties to raise capital for modernising and expansion. The C of E and Oxbridge universities being two examples of the farms’ owners.

In which case it’s, cash rich, asset poor.

Oxford University has owned land for a very long time.
My ancestors farmed land owned by Oxford University in the 1800s.

Yes it did MaizieD.

We used to call it ‘potato picking’ holiday. In rural Yorkshire, that’s what we children used to do during that week - pick potatoes!

My late dad was a farm labourer and, as a young child (60+ years ago) I used to ‘help’ with hay making and all sorts of things around the farm.

It was a rural idyll; a by-gone age. Life has moved on - so has farming!

MaizieD, I know!

A few years ago we had friends staying and we had those tiny supermarket potatoes with our lunch. When asked "what's for lunch" by one of my adult children I said, joyfully "pig potatoes" and everyone was alarmed!
I'll never forget the reaction.

Happy days.
But it was hard labour to be honest!

I live in a rural area where there are lots of farms. Yes most do have Land Rovers and their daughters might have horse boxes (as someone earlier peevishly said) but my goodness they work hard for it and the Land Rover is their work horse!

I have been in many farmers homes and they are not luxurious and most aren’t even modern. They work extremely long hours in all weathers and they seldom take holidays.

I support the farmers.

Individual farmers don’t own a high proportion of land in the UK. Analysis done by Farmers Weekly:
www.fwi.co.uk/business/markets-and-trends/land-markets/who-owns-britains-farmland

I support the farmers.

Would you like to support them by paying the true cost of what they produce?

Casdon

Individual farmers don’t own a high proportion of land in the UK. Analysis done by Farmers Weekly:
www.fwi.co.uk/business/markets-and-trends/land-markets/who-owns-britains-farmland

Kind of paywalled, Casdon.

Can you do a bit of a precis or quote some figures?

Mum and I lasted 3 days spud bashing or potato picking. It was really hard back breaking work. We knew the farmer and he gave us a very productive plot and we struggled to keep pace with the tractor. We were allowed gleanings as well.

Good question Maizie👍

Relating to:

Would you like to support them by paying the true cost of what they produce

MaizieD

^I support the farmers.^

Would you like to support them by paying the true cost of what they produce?

I'd like to know that farmers are not having to give up their livelihood because supermarkets are not paying them the right price for their produce so that they cannot make even a living wage. .

Sainsbury’s boss was paid just under £5million last year – but this was just half of what his Tesco rival got
.
UK retailer Tesco has announced its preliminary results for 2023/24, reporting a profit of nearly £2.3 billion before tax.

Tesco's latest annual report showed that its CEO Ken Murphy was paid £9.9 million in the last financial year – an increase of £5.5 million increase on his previous pay package of £4.4 million, more than doubling his overall pay.

Asda offers its CEO £10 million

We say we support the farmers, me included. However, apparently only 62% of our food is produced in the UK, compared to 90% of the food consumed by the French. Some of that is explained by them being able to grow a wider range due to the warmer temperatures in the south, but not all.

Casdon

We say we support the farmers, me included. However, apparently only 62% of our food is produced in the UK, compared to 90% of the food consumed by the French. Some of that is explained by them being able to grow a wider range due to the warmer temperatures in the south, but not all.

The population density of the UK is more than twice that of France.

Allira

MaizieD

I support the farmers.

Would you like to support them by paying the true cost of what they produce?

I'd like to know that farmers are not having to give up their livelihood because supermarkets are not paying them the right price for their produce so that they cannot make even a living wage. .

Sainsbury’s boss was paid just under £5million last year – but this was just half of what his Tesco rival got
.
UK retailer Tesco has announced its preliminary results for 2023/24, reporting a profit of nearly £2.3 billion before tax.

Tesco's latest annual report showed that its CEO Ken Murphy was paid £9.9 million in the last financial year – an increase of £5.5 million increase on his previous pay package of £4.4 million, more than doubling his overall pay.

^Asda offers its CEO £10 million^

Sadly, that's the economic system we live under and which most people seem to approve of.

You could bet your life that, should the supermarkets pay the farmers the right price then prices in the shops would go up, the CEOs would retain their bloated salaries and supermarket profits would stay proportionately the same.

Whole thing a disgrace, Labour should be ashamed, we need Farmers they struggle as it is.

Possibly some of it was due to payments from the EU for ‘set aside’. Daft idea really surely to let fields lie fallow or with wildflowers? The French can now sell US their produce instead? Win win for them? Short termism for the UK. We ought to produce as much as possible to feed ourselves? Plus keep the carbon footprint down?

MaizieD

Casdon

Individual farmers don’t own a high proportion of land in the UK. Analysis done by Farmers Weekly:
www.fwi.co.uk/business/markets-and-trends/land-markets/who-owns-britains-farmland

Kind of paywalled, Casdon.

Can you do a bit of a precis or quote some figures?

Sorry, it opened for me the first time. Try this link from Countryfile.
www.countryfile.com/news/who-owns-england-history-of-englands-landownership-and-how-much-is-privately-owned-today

MaizieD

Allira

MaizieD

I support the farmers.

Would you like to support them by paying the true cost of what they produce?

I'd like to know that farmers are not having to give up their livelihood because supermarkets are not paying them the right price for their produce so that they cannot make even a living wage. .

Sainsbury’s boss was paid just under £5million last year – but this was just half of what his Tesco rival got
.
UK retailer Tesco has announced its preliminary results for 2023/24, reporting a profit of nearly £2.3 billion before tax.

Tesco's latest annual report showed that its CEO Ken Murphy was paid £9.9 million in the last financial year – an increase of £5.5 million increase on his previous pay package of £4.4 million, more than doubling his overall pay.

^Asda offers its CEO £10 million^

Sadly, that's the economic system we live under and which most people seem to approve of.

You could bet your life that, should the supermarkets pay the farmers the right price then prices in the shops would go up, the CEOs would retain their bloated salaries and supermarket profits would stay proportionately the same.

I'm afraid you're right. ☹

Allira

Casdon

We say we support the farmers, me included. However, apparently only 62% of our food is produced in the UK, compared to 90% of the food consumed by the French. Some of that is explained by them being able to grow a wider range due to the warmer temperatures in the south, but not all.

The population density of the UK is more than twice that of France.

Yes, but they actively promote French food above all others, less than 10% of all food sold in supermarkets is made outside France. We no longer eat in season, or eat traditional foods to the same degree. The more relevant question is probably could the UK produce all its own food, and I suspect the answer is yes.