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.

Thanks for posting that link, hopefully people will read it and perhaps buy local/ British produce if they don’t usually.

And also on the asset rich comments, you are only asset rich if someone wants your assets. Not all farms are next to desirable leafy suburbs etc.

Completely agree.

Farmers as a class vote consistently to fuck people like me over. Have zero sympathy really for their personal situation.

I'm only concerned about the impact this has on food prices, that would be the only reason I would support a government to act to support farming.

As for complaints about the green agenda I say at least you are getting paid for doing the right thing and trying to reverse at least some of the damage done to our rivers and flood resilience by modern farming practices.

@fyn sure but if they have a £1,000,000 mortgage on a £4,000,000 farm... still rich!

I know people might not feel rich if they have a low annual income and choose not to sell their land, but they are.

Perhaps the government could offer people well-paid perpetual contracts, in return for putting their land in trust for the nation. Wonder how farmers would react to that?

And as for tenant farmers, people are still queueing up for tenancies as I understand - so it's not like the demand for the lifestyle isn't there.

It mostly does come down to us just paying more

If we don’t want shops to undercut each other because you’ll go next door then don’t just buy the cheapest

Go for the more expensive local produce

At the end of the day, you never see a farmer on bike.

Farmers have far more resources available to them than most working people. Pleading poverty and hardship to those who they consistently vote against is insulting.

Depends how much the public like cheap food doesn’t it? Further food inflation may be the thing that overcomes asset envy.

Have you actually read this thread or are you just ignorant?

Conservatives are the only party who have ever put forward a credible ag policy, of course those of us in the industry would vote for a party who supports our livelihood, what an odd comment.

No, you don’t see many farmers on bikes, is that honestly a benchmark? You would like the industry which literally feeds you to be so piss poor we can’t afford transport. Fuck me, aren’t you a delight. I bet you’re not hungry though.

Trouble is with going to farm shops, fishmongers and butchers separately is that there are none in walking distance of us and we are semi rural with no buses so it means driving round to different places instead of just a quick trip up the road to the supermarket, so I'm not sure that several miles more of diesel emissions every week would be offset by the carbon gains of local produce. Though all the fresh produce we buy at the supermarket is British and much of the fruit and veg is from producers within 50 miles of us at this time of year.

Such a shame one of the first things the conservatives did was put in the badger cull which immediately divided farmers from a lot of their natural allies. Instead a lot of younger people became vegan and got captured by the meat free and plant milk industries

The bike comment is an odd one I agree. What has that got to do with anything

@Eleganz aye because rural living is so easy on a bike... 🙄

Read the thread!

Thanks for sharing. A lot of people have no idea.

Also let's not pretend it's cheap going to individual suppliers. I spent £45 on meat for two meals last time I went to the butchers. I cook a lot from scratch, several of our dinners are vegetarian, and we still spend £200 a week on shopping as it is, that's from Aldi & Sainsbury's (for five adults basically). Food probably still is relatively cheap but people are struggling to afford it, and to afford to cook it, as it is.

Unfortunately the large supermarkets in this country have squeezed out so many independent shops.

I used to live on Italy and there were fruit and veg shops, butchers and fishmongers everywhere. Also you are what was in season so it was so much fresher and tastier. It took a bit of getting used to but so good.

The Conservatives have been in power for 13 years. How credible is their agricultural policy given that you are on here complaining about how hard life is for you? How is voting Tory working out for you?

I would rather farmers either got out of the industry or actually had enough self awareness to realise that people walking to food banks are never going to accept that you are in hardship whilst driving by in your landrover.

I couldn't care less whether you have transport or not, you and your ilk don't give a flying fuck about me and mine as evidenced by the way you vote.

Well if you're content to starve...

Have none of you seen the bicycle powered combine harvesters?

Anecdotally the only farmers I know that voted for Brexit were the older ones that are at the end of their working lives...

Right I've signed up to back British farming (thank you Arabella Scott). We really do need to support our British farmers and UK food security before it's too late.

I would rather farmers either got out of the industry or actually had enough self awareness to realise that people walking to food banks are never going to accept that you are in hardship whilst driving by in your landrover.

So you want people to vote for your priorities not theirs. Why so self centred? Surely you can see you are not the centre of everyone’s vote.

As for hoping they get out of the industry you are shooting yourself in the foot. We need good food production not less of it.

I'm wondering whether there's any cross over between environmental organisations and farming organisations? You'd think Friends of the Earth, Plant life, Soil association might want to work with the NFU etc?

i Unfortunately the large supermarkets in this country have squeezed out so many independent shops.

They have but it's because they generally really good at what they do and provide and people find them convenient.

There is a real chance to help smaller shops now with people spending more time near home on average but where I live the story is that High St shops are fairly quickly disappearing in favour of housing.

I'm from a farming family though don't live on a farm myself anymore. Immediate family do.
I know a lot of farmers and I can't think of one that doesn't have a second job or run another business alongside the farm.
It's not affordable. There was a time when it was the hill farmers really struggling and the big arable farms still turned a profit. I think the hill farmers have diversified to survive (plenty didn't, some sold up and several I know died- some suicide and some just over work and stress lead to heart attacks etc).
It might be that the larger farms have less options for diversification. So much invested in land and equipment, not in touristy places etc.
you would have thought all the suicides during foot and mouth might have changed things but it hasn't.
OP can your husband start a sideline? I know farmers that do mechanics, engineering, hood trimming on other fames, gamekeeping, artificial insemination, B&B, rent fields to horses, insurance, drive HGVs, milk lorry, joinery, work in shops. I know he won't feel he has the time though but it would be an out for him and time away as well as helping financially.