To tell you how fucked UK agriculture is?

[eatsleepfarmrepeat]

God I just feel beaten this evening, I’m a farmers wife, I work in a professional role which pays well (thank god) we have two young children and I’m just DONE.

My husband is on his arse. This years harvest is so relentless, wet weather means it’s a real smash and grab operation, the heavy machines are running on wet ground and we’re just burning diesel trying to dry wet crops.

I’ve just escorted the combine from the field up to the yard (because it’s raining, again) and for about the fifth time this harvest I’ve been flashed at and given the wanker sign. I mean, I get it, it’s a big bit of kit, it takes up the whole road but honestly escorting is the only way to get them home safely and how the fuck do you get it from A to B without it going on the road? We’re not waggoning class As or having some recreational rave, we’re just making food.

We grow cereals which are either milling wheat for bread (which will be problematic this year due to the drop in proteins and the unfavourable harvest because of the weather) feed wheat for animal feed, oil seed rape for biodiesel and barley, for beer. The new green agenda means our subsidies are being replaced by taking good arable land (which makes up 24% of the country) out of production. This is why there is a shortage of eggs, the commodity price is being pushed and egg producers are not being paid the cost of production by supermarkets so they are importing, from countries which are not held to the same (necessary) animal welfare standards which the UK industry operate under.
we produce high welfare free range chickens. They retail for £10+ but our contract with supermarkets has them in at £3.24 per bird - imagine trying to operate on those margins with food and energy bills being what they are. In addition the UK market is absolutely flooded with Thai imports of cheap shit mean which again falls far below our own mandatory animal welfare standards - we just cannot compete.

ironically a lot of our feed wheat will probs go to vivirgo/e sos for energy crops. Literally thousands of litres of diesel burned producing something to go into a power plant and be sold as green energy for the lithium heavy teslas of Britain.

in the last decade we have planted 100acres of woodland, created four new wildlife ponds on the farm and drilled artichoke and wildflower shelter belts to enhance wildlife and pollinators on the farm.

I keep thinking we would be a million times happier (and better off) if we just sold out of the partnership and started again, get out of this shit, spiralling industry where the general public seem to think we’re trying to kill them and simultaneously fuck the countryside at the same time, go have a nice life where my husband isn’t hampered by stress and the never ending pressure of his arsehole father who got fat in the 70s where they used shit hot chemicals and decimated any balance of wildlife. This year is hard but with the commodity prices falling again against an increasing fuel and labour and fertiliser bill I just wonder what the fuck we are doing it for. Any trade off with the lovely holistic life the kids have is countered by stressed out parents.

we’re an island. We need food security, and we’re being paid to fallow productive acres which is already having a knock on effect to other food markets. Why are we so short sighted? We can afford to be virtuous with our farmland as a nation by offsetting but the outcome is that we’re outsourcing our footprint to these poorer nations like Thailand who are picking up our production slack and selling their chicken into our country at a criminally low value. It’s batshit.

I really feel for you, the way supermarkets treat farmers is appalling. It’s not a popular view but products like milk and meat is far too cheap in the UK.

How does it compare?

We get the pricier stuff usually, which also are U.K. based

Jeremy Clarkson has done 100 times more for highlighting the plight in British Farming in 16 episodes than the NFU have been able to do in 16 years.

I'm not sure it's all their fault, but their approach seems to be softly softly let's talk about how we can make farming more environmentally friendly to appease the green lot, rather than being upfront and loud about how much at risk our food security is.

Can anyone recommend a good ethically sound meat supplier in SW London? I generally buy my meat in Waitrose but it’s become increasingly expensive and actually not that great. Would love a recommendation where the farmer benefits.

Someone needs to set up a slick Deliveroo system that connects the farms with the people and bypasses the shops. There are plenty of people who will pay £12 a chicken direct from you IMO

You need a big campaign. Buying direct from farmers seems to be the best way to go? I'd happily do that, but it's rather hard where I am (and I'm semi rural) to find that. I'll make more of an effort to find local suppliers and see if I can buy direct. I've noticed our local supermarkets no longer stock free range or decent quality meat, so I shop around til I find it. It would be great if there was one place I could go to get high welfare, good quality meat and dairy - and I'd be willing to pay more.

Sounds like you also need an organisation that will fight at policy level for farmers/farms?

Thanks for starting the thread, OP, I had no idea about all of this.

@Cigarettesandbooze You would need to investigate more but I've seen flyers for Field & Flower.

@eatsleepfarmrepeat I hear you. I really do. we are a mixed farm. Currently worrying about the rain flattening the barley and we still have wheat to be harvested. The roof is leaking in the grain store so drying charges will be higher than hoped.
We also have cows calving. Sheep to dose. Lambs to sort and take to the mart.
We have a new baby. Maternity leave? Ha! We are tired. My husband (and me) works 365 days a year. We had a 2 night break away to a seaside resort 4 years ago. No chance for a holiday since. I don’t think the general public understand or could begin to understand the effort that goes into producing their food.
I feel like no one is listening and we are sleep walking in to a real s**tshow. It will be too late by the time the general public wake up.

I really don't know what else Tory-voting, Brexit-voting farmers expected tbh. No sympathy here.

I would love to buy direct from farms but I live in a city and don't have a car

There are lots of very normal butchers that do online meat delivering - not just your big name fancy organic types.

One of my local butchers delivers nationwide and I know another one does a local delivery - literally takes orders over the phone and goes village to village to drop off a couple days a week, as well as delivering as they always have done to the local pubs. They started during covid to replace the trade they lost from hospitality and have found its a very successful business model.

Have a look at butchers in your area and see if their websites suggest they might deliver locally.

Such an ignorant comment. Have you actually even read the thread?

I do think customers can help. Start by not buying the cheapest and also go for U.K. produced

Not everyone can afford it I know, or maybe changing how much meat you eat but spend more on each item, but those who can should try

Supermarkets respond to competition as they want to keep people, so it’s up to us really

As for net zero, I feel like we’ve been sold and put in by law to something not that good for us. Lack of scrutiny but just a neat slogan.

Well, plenty of us here listening.

Keep talking.

We were worrying about the weather and the farmers yesterday. Thank you!

I try and buy British meat at least. I'll try harder!

Greenwashing is a problem across the board. Even good intentions so often get put through administrative filters and turn into bullshit by the time they get to the real world. I'm very concerned about climate change, pollution and the environment, but that doesn't mean that the so-called green policies are addressing the issues, nor that they need to shit on UK farmers to do so!

I do keep asking and asking our supermarkets for better quality meat and dairy, but I am just one person.

A group of consumers might exert more pressure? There are existing campaigns to give more to farmers, aren't there?

@Frisbeeee
I really don't know what else Tory-voting, Brexit-voting farmers expected tbh. No sympathy here
You're a bad poster girl for the left

a sour yet unnecessary remark

Buying direct from the farm is not always possible.
We grow wheat & barley. We have no facilities to process the crop so it is ready to sell to the public (ie make it in to flour or alcohol etc) so it is sold to a grain buyer.
We have a herd of beef cattle. We sell our animals as store cattle. This means they are not quite finished and ready to enter the food chain. We don’t have enough grass on our farm to do this. Another farmer or cattle buyer will finish them.
We sell our lambs as fat lambs so they can go straight into the food chain. We don’t have (and can’t afford) the facilities (cold stores, butcher, website etc) to sell this meat direct to the public. Also staff would be an issue, we literally have no more hours in any day and couldn’t afford to pay anyone else or get anyone to work.
For farmers who do sell direct though, please use them if you can. I guarantee there won’t be much more (if any more?) profit compared to what you buy in the supermarkets but you will be directly helping that farmer keep his business going. I buy my meat from a local butcher who buys his meat direct from the farm or the local mart. The butcher sends the animals to slaughter.
Buy local if you can.

Yes, I thought that there might be logistics involved, Farmersweeklyreader!

I found this:

https://www.countrysideonline.co.uk/back-british-farming/how-can-i-support-british-farmers/

Is your local mp any help? You present a very clear informed case. I don’t eat meat but will aim to buy other farmed things from uk suppliers

I've never thought farming was anything other than extremely stressful (with moments of great satisfaction and pleasure) and really sympathise.

The government make it difficult to run any SME- I always think smaller businesses do well in spite of government not because of it and it should be the other way round. Business people work very hard and the government come along and fuck up the economy - lately with the metric ton of red tape from Brexit and the loss of labour and skills, and the political instability leading to chronic underinvestment.

The government think business = accountancy firms, banks, oil companies, insurance companies, law firms and big corporations and as long as they are helping out their mates in those entities the business box is ticked for them. They think we don't or can't grow produce or make or build things in this country.

When in reality over 60% of the working population are employed by SMEs.

While I do have compassion for farmers and would like to help them, I'm also really concerned about the implications for food security.

Seems absolutely mad to me, given geo politics, to cede our ability to feed ourselves.

But farming represents such a tiny proportion of the UK's emissions. The government needs to tackle transport and energy generation, but that would involve investing in infrastructure. Farmers are a soft target.

The government make it difficult to run any SME- I always think smaller businesses do well in spite of government not because of it and it should be the other way round.

Abso fucking lutely.