Originally from: Farmtalking
                        
http://www.dailytelegraph.co.uk/
Farmers launch fight to save their industry
By Robert Uhlig, Farming Correspondent
(Filed: 09/09/2002)

More than 400 jobs have been lost in farming every week since Labour came to power, farmers will disclose today at the launch of a 10-day publicity campaign before the Liberty and Livelihood March and party conferences.

Farmers will take to the streets to highlight the crisis in agriculture and to gather support for the demonstration on Sept 22.

The campaign will culminate in Ben Gill, the president of the National Farmers' Union, leading a delegation on the march.

The Farming Counts campaign is seen as a last-ditch attempt by the NFU to make the public aware of why farming is the cornerstone of the rural economy and what would be lost if it were allowed to disappear.

It will tell the public that farming is in its worst state for decades because farmers earn little more than a quarter of the price that supermarkets charge for food and often significantly less than the cost of production.

Mr Gill said yesterday that an average basket of farm produce, including beef, eggs, milk, bread, tomatoes and apples, typically cost £37 in the shops. But a farmer received only £11.

Mr Gill said that most farmers were struggling on incomes that had plummeted by 71 per cent since the mid-1990s. The average farm income was around £7,000, significantly below the minimum wage.

"This enormous price discrepancy shows clearly why farmers are having such a difficult time, with many not even recouping the cost of production," he said.

Mr Gill said that cereal farmers were paid less than a twelfth of the price of a loaf of bread for their grain. If just one extra penny on a loaf went directly to farmers, the farm gate price would increase by a third, he added.

The situation was no better for livestock producers. Pig farmers were paid 96 pence a kilo for their animals, less than a seventh of the retail price of £6.97 a kilo for back bacon.

Frustrated by what they saw as government indifference, farmers will call on the public to support them by buying British produce, primarily by looking for the Little Red Tractor logo on food products.

Mr Gill insisted the campaign was "not a whinge" but an attempt to make the public aware of the untenable state of farming.

He said that if farming did not return to profitability, the industry could disappear, taking with it 550,000 jobs and the heart of the food industry, the country's largest employer.

With farmers caring for three quarters of the land, the crisis could also result in profound changes to the countryside.