FARMING COSTS

Originally from: JOHN NICHOLSON
                        
TO MARGRET BECKETT @ THE U.K. GOVERMENTMargaret Beckett Is British agriculture to being blessed with a Labour Party for ever who believe that there should be no input from the British government. In my opinion the Labour party managed by Tony Blair has made an excellent job of dealing with the foot and mouth crisis, we shall never know how long foot and mouth was already in the country, the very nature of sheep management, prevents us from being sure when, foot and mouth first occurred in sheep, once Mr Blair understood the extent and danger of the foot mouth crisis, he took control of the situation into his own hands, from that time he managed it successfully, no expense was spared in the fight to control the disease. Mr Blair took onboard experts from many fields, obviously he was given the broad range of advice but from that he took the best possible course of action. It would have been the total disaster in the long term to British agriculture, if we had initiated a vaccination programme at the beginning of this crisis. Steps were quickly taken to inhibit the spread of this dangerous disease. We are now seeing the closing stages of the disease, there may be more outbreaks, but at the moment we are seeing daily totals of new diseases at its lowest ever levels.

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Originally from the way in which Mr Blair handled the crisis, farmers can understand, and appreciate the fact that he is able to undertake a major project, we are again seeing Mr Blair handle a world crisis, in the form of retaliation to the terrorist attack on the twin towers in America. With his steady hand at the wheel, why should we be frightened of the old Labour attitude. In the past Labour was very co-operative with British farming, but for last few years especially when the Conservative party was in opposition, there developed among MPs of all parties, a resistance to subsidising British agriculture, they seem to hold the belief, that they would win the votes by taking this attitude, MPs have failed to realise, that it is of a little interest to the general public how much the government has to spend on agricultural subsidies. But it is a matter of
 immense importance to the British public, that they have a safe and secure food supply,

If we can trust Tony Blair to handle the foot and mouth crisis, surely we can trust him, to understand the economics which every farmer in Britain fully understands, we cannot produce food in Britain without a long-term investment, every farmer in Britain hasn't been committed to his job for the entire length of their individual lives for nothing, they are passionate about their calling. The farming community has provided from the resources in its hands the very best quality food that it was able to produce. It would be a disaster of immense proportion, to both our agriculture, and for the British public, if British agriculture, was not to produce, the maximum amount of food. Why you may ask, the first reason,would be public welfare, we already buy half our food from abroad, by producing at home we can ensure that many fresh products are all of the highest quality, we can ensure that the money needed to provide this food is distributed in our own country. We do not have to spend money we earned from exports in order to buy from our own resources. It is vital that agriculture is given its true place in economic common sense “why buy food from a shop of lesser quality when your own garden will produce for free food that tastes better and costs nothing”----- but a little time, less time then it takes to walk to the shop.

The biggest damage that was done to agriculture within the past few years, was a sustained rise in the value of the pound. No amount of cost savings could replace the money lost by 30 percent reduction in the pricing of our food against that of Europe. Eventually British agriculture will be on a level playing field within Europe, untill that happens the British government has no other alternative , then to protect the British farmer in the short term. It would be idiocy to allow farming to fall into an economic trap from which it could not escape. It has been battered not only by foot and mouth but by the BSE crisis previously.

It has been clearly demonstrated that British agriculture does not stand alone. During this year we have seen disaster in our tourist industry. No government, of whatever colour can aford to think, of the united kingdom in any other way then that of a whole, series of connected businesses, each person is dependent on others, each business is dependent others, and indeed each country is dependent upon others.

Understanding of this dependence and interdependence, makes one fully aware of the cost in both economic, and welfare terms. In a world of diminishing resources, it is the first duty of any government, to protect its own food supplies. Providing top quality food from our own resources should be a priority to any government, not only does it cost less in economic terms,even if it were, slightly more expensive, the national pot is preserved; the costs of growing UK food is distributed among our own society. Products produced in the United Kingdom inevitably benefit the whole of the United Kingdom Society, the wages paid to produce our goods provide the resources to pay for those goods. There are a tropical crops which we cannot buy from our own farmers, but in the long-term there are many temperate goods which will benefit from being produced in the UK. Fresh milk, fresh vegetables, top quality beef and pork, our own UK lamb, when it is in season. The nature of our British countryside, does not lend itself to large farming operations. Our countryside is densely populated, our farms by nature are small and medium-sized, they do not lend themselves, to be turned into massive holdings. Villages are closely intersperse within our countryside. With the gradual breakdown of our large estates, farm ownership has been more widely dispersed, tenants have bought their own farms, a stable and a strong British agriculture depends upon a sound owner occupier freeman farmer, and a tenant farmer paying a reasonable rent. In the last few years farms have become larger, the retirement of older farmers with the farmsteads being sold for residential purposes. This leaves land available to be purchased to expand farms in those areas, however there is very much a limit on how big British farms can become. With the residential market being so strong, farm profits so small it leaves farmers in difficulty financing larger farms. Price rises are needed to protect the basic cost levels of production never mind to make a profit.MARGRET BECKET do not lose any opportunity to enhance legitimately our farm product returns our farm accounts run red with the life blood of our FARMERS
                        

Originally from: David
                        
Dear njhjh,

For a first posting that is quite an informed bit of writing. When I first started reading it, I assumed you were a labour party spin doctor because your views on Tony Blair are diametrically opposed to everyone else's. I hope you have sent your letter to Margaret Becket and Tony Blair – they will like your first para!

Maybe Tony Blair's plan is the same as his plan for Railtrack – let it get into massive debt and then Nationalise it! I think farmers now owe £14bn which is probably more than our profits – so the clock is ticking unless farmers wake up to ways of improving their prices.

You make a good case for the support of British Agriculture and there I fully support you. But if you think the UK Govt (esp Tony Blair) is going to support you, I think you are very much mistaken. It is too expensive to produce food in this country and compete on the world market so we are being sold down the river in favour of E. European countries and anywhere else it is cheap.

Farmers have to either make a niche for themselves OR sell the majority of its produce through farmer owned, farmer controlled (as in current producers) and farmer controlled processing. We have the best market in Europe and the worst prices in Europe – because we don't control the marketing and processing. There are more supermarket brands in the UK than anywhere else in the world.

FARMERS NEED TO WAKE UP!

David
Dairy Farmer