To support UK Farmers: Part II

[Locutus2000]

Original post from TheHateIsNotGood 16/11/24

And due to KS's inability to face them in Wales today they are now thinking of going on strike. Because the govt are being too stubborn to reconsider how they apply IHT on working family farms. By all means close the loophole that allows the 'landed gentry' to take advantage of the agricultural exception but not with so blunt an instrument.

I was hoping to add a post to an existing thread but there isn't one despite it being headline news today.

Seems a thread worth keeping going.

Likewise.
I have a former work colleague who knows nothing about farming opining all over FB. Ignorance is apparently no bar to having a strong opinion.

But its often far more expensive.

NZ lamp, wholesale is much cheaper than the British version, same with fruit and salad crops.

We are now seeing car jobs being lost, as the previous Govts net zero plans start to affect traditional car manufacturers who simply cannot compete with EV only companies.

Anyway, its all bollox, carbon emissions are higher than ever and set to continue to increase.... so much for all those COP summits.

Perhaps UK farmers and Govt need to look at why its cheaper to source food abroad, from developed economies, than it is to produce it here?

EV car sales have also crashed, the public just aren't buying them in the numbers required.

Inflation has risen again to 2.5% add in higher NI contribution by employers, increase in minimum wage. Supermarkets and retailers have written to the government this week 40 of them. Tesco ASDA etc. prices will rise, staff numbers will be cut. There's no end to the misery.

Its 2.3% - the expectation was 2.2%, the previous 1.7% was caused by the fall in energy prices, now they gone up by 10%

No one can afford an EV, charging isn't there for most people who don't have off street parking.

Plus the environmental cost of scrapping perfectly good cars for EVs, is madness.

On NI, its strange that prices didn't fall when Hunt gave these very same businesses a substantial tax break in Nov 23... & energy prices have fallen substantially since their highs... yet prices stay high.

Main cost for businesses and of course to Farmers is an almost 7% rise in NMW, on top of the 10% last year....

Who can afford to shop in farmers markets and farm shops?

Our semi farm shop is very good price wise. If you have a family I recommend buying potatoes by the sack load. Yes they'll have dirt on them but in the garage the sack lasted months. Last time I asked Maris Piper £17 a sack.

We bought a sack during the first lockdown.We found a few rattling around in the sack nine months later in perfect condition.

Eggs duck and hens are so much more flavoursome. And even cheaper direct from the farmers gate.

Some farmers sell turkeys and ducks for Christmas, pricy but again tastier.

We have strawberry picking up here. Just pick what you need and they weigh and sell them. The grandchildren love picking their own.

Local tomatoes in season if you can't grow your own are so much better. Our neighbour grows some in her front porch. Looks very pretty covered in cherry tomatoes.

Sounds idyllic but back in the real world people
can’t afford to shop in farm shops
or markets. They are way too expensive.

I fully support them, I live rurally although I'm not a farmer, but have friends who are. Some have their own farms, some are agricultural workers

Farming does not exist in a vacuum, a great number of rural businesses service farming and depend on a healthy sector. It's all very well for John McTernan to say we don't need family farms but if they disappear the rural economy would be so badly damaged there would be a cost to the economy as a whole.

Strangely although farm shop produce is more expensive I actually spend less overall than when I shop in the supermarket. It is because I am not tempted into buying all the extra offers, BOGOfs, baskets of stuff you don't need but is on special offer. My food bill has halved, even though individual items are more expensive, it's far lower food miles and far, far better quality.

25k of potatoes that don't sprout within a couple of days is reasonable. White potatoes £12 for £25k. Eggs at farm gate £1.50 per half dozen. Attached feathers free. 😬

I've just checked potatoes Tesco are more expensive than farm shop. I challenge any supermarket to last nine months in our garage. Ditto the carrots we buy

Unfortunately this isn't my experience of farm shops. Most round my way are around £1 a kg. From the end of the farm lane, eggs around £1.50. Farm shop add .75p minimum. Farmers markets are a better bet for deals.

Absolutely not the case with our farm shops.All of them are laughably eye wateringly expensive.Only the very rich use them .

That's a shame. It was started by a family of greengrocers, wholesale to hotels but with a sort of shop for locals inside the industrial unit. They also did farmers markets. They eventually took on another industrial unit double the size, half wholesale, half retail. They invited bakers, butchers, farmers , jam, honey makers, pickles, gawd it really varies like any farmers market to supply their goods within the building. You can buy seasonally. You can buy a punnet of strawberries for eating or a whole box for jam making.

I'll try to find some pictures.

25kg of potatoes that don't sprout within a couple of days is reasonable

Potatoes are the last thing i'd buy from the gate or market.

Unless organic, they use sprout suppression chemicals on spuds, with min time periods before human consumption, i don't trust Farmers to abide by these when selling a few spare bags to a market

Jeez, we grow our own new potatoes, they don't sprout either.

https://www.tatwstrading.co.uk/home?fbclid=IwY2xjawGsb1pleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHVZ_tLrGnW7tv8hNWIgJFpdSKAS6mAK8CtR8BWU4n9MNT-Vd639BeNadbw_aem_g0fyjPTrDi2UynuwqsOKCw

Thing is though, farmers done retire. They have a work ethic like very few other industries. My 76 year old father works an 80 hour week during harvest. My 86 year old father in law will be doing a weekend looking after cattle this weekend on top of doing odd farm jobs every weekday morning. My 72 year old mum still does all the farm books. My 79 year old mother in law still does all the cattle passports and helps with the cows

Retirement with a pension has never been on most working farmers radar.

I also take umbrage that investing in sheds and machinery is a form of tax avoidance. It’s investing in the business for goodness sake.

I went to school with a bunch of farmers. They're not hard up. Kids had all the latest gadgets going and went on every school trip. They had pet horses and also keenly supported fox hunting. They can clearly afford a tax increase.

Latest gadgets, you resent that?
School trips, don't most kids enjoy those?
Horses, it's a farm, should they ride cows?
Fox hunting , they shoot them in the country and in cities.

You sound jealous to be honest.

It does seem that way... 🤷🏻‍♀️

I know the rural areas voted for it. We certainly didn't vote for it here in your nation's capital. Yet we all suffer.

Yes lets all drive to Wales to buy are new spuds, which defo will not keep for 9 months & not are sold in 25kg bags... are you sure you re a small holder?

But that link does prove a point, £200 for a outdoor log store? you really do live in a different world and yes, Horses are extremely expensive, only the better off can afford them.

A choice not a commandment. Some may even argue it selfish by denying younger working age people a job.

I voted Remain but some seem to be gleeful about seeing other people lose their businesses and home, viewing it as justice.

Not a good look. And not accurate.

Absolutely not resentful or jealous, just an observation that I have never met a poor farmer, and I have met many of them!

‘Pet horses’ Tee hee hee

Have to say, that is my experience of them, yes they work hard, yes they produce food but boy oh boy can the moan!