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ReferenceRE: Smithfield wins bid for Farmland Industries Pork Division

Nigel Cannings 16 October 2003 11:46

Originally from: Farmtalking
                        
Thanks Gary!

I've read your message and the article/interview with Luter of Smithfield; both very interesting.

However, I have a few observations to make.

Like so many others, I had taken little interest in where or how our food was produced until the FMD outbreak of 2001. This in spite of the fact that members of my own family were farmers and for most of my life I've lived in the countryside, on or near farms.

Of course I know that the world's human population has increased and many species of animal and plants too, in order to provide us with food.

I have learnt, for instance that the UK is not self sufficient in wheat, nor has it been since before WWII. We have to import wheat for our bread.

The same applies to chicken, we do not produce enough ourselves to supply the demand and huge quantities are imported.

I also know that the animals reared in this country were of excellent quality and we exported livestock as foundation breeding stock to many parts of the world during the last century. Beef cattle, pigs and sheep were sent to South America, the USA, Australia, Canada and New Zealand for instance.

Those countries were able to produce vast quantities, which other countries and ourselves imported as required.

There is no doubt that huge changes have occurred everywhere, including in the UK, during the last century. Having been a producer and manufacturer of goods since the industrial revolution, we are now mainly supplying services and have to import both manufactured goods and food.

Looking at this from a wide perspective it seems to be an evolutionary process that makes sense in much the same way as the traditional family structure used to make sense. Dad went out to work and Mum stayed at home and cared for the family. However, that too has evolved and changed.

Both have and are causing problems, but one thing is certain, we can't turn the clock back to how things used to be. We have to face the problems and try to solve them.

We complain because some have grabbed the opportunities and like Luter with Smithfield, have been prepared to take the risks (i.e.: borrow the money) and gone ahead and established a successful business that supplies what the market demands. The downside of this is the failure of the small producer who could not compete.

Exactly the same has happened in our shopping centres. Fifty years ago our towns were filled with small family-owned shops supplying a variety of goods. Huge super stores that do the same has now replaced them and we the consumers use them.

It is tempting to remember what we think of as 'the good old days' and wish for their return but we know it won't happen. If the world is to be supplied with food and goods both as efficiently and economically as possible, companies like Smithfield are going to be formed and expand to supply us.

Our concerns cannot be their destruction but making sure that the methods they use are humane, of the very best practise and that food is fairly distributed among humanity worldwide.

At the same time we have to try to improve vaccines for FMD/TB etc, and discover the truth about such diseases as BSE/Scrapie etc and the benefits or not of GM crops.

I am very fortunate to still be able to live on a family owned farm where the animals are well cared for and the land is still farmed in a fairly traditional manner. However, it would be very naive of me to imagine that both the farm and I will continue to live in this way forever.

Changes will come and probably sooner than we expect or perhaps desire, but we have to adjust to them and work to ensure that the changes will benefit us all, animals, crops and human beings if any of us are to survive a species!

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