to assume that if you work in the food industry your job is gonna be safe in this recession?

[ANamesANameForAThatsTaken]

I mean, people have got to eat, credit crunch or no credit crunch. Someone tell my my dad and my dp are gonna be OK.

Depends on the company - if they are a luxury food supplier then maybe less so or if the company is saddled with debt, then it is also more tricky.

But IMO out of all the industries - it is probably one of the better ones. Except baliffs, shoe repairers / cobblers, debt counsellors, alcohol manufacturers, fag companies etc

Hard to say. Food industries need financial backing and have debts to pay, too. If they can't get the backing or pay the debts, people will lose their jobs.

NO jobs are safe in recessions, sad to say, but that's the truth.

Depends on the food industry involved though.

I ran a business making gourmet organic food, very specialist (for allergy sufferers etc.) and had to stop trading a few months back due to a lack of custoers who where cutting back on what was viewed as 'luxury food'.

would you call gravy a luxury

Restaurants will probably suffer more as people stop eating out.

Gravy is a necessity!

Thank the lord, me dad's OK. What about cakes. I mean normal cakes like packets of mini-rolls and jam tarts.

bought-gravy?

yes, a luxury

there was a piece on farming today this morning saying how lots of farmers would be "protected" but also would suffer because of lack of confidence of those they borrow from (banks) when they need capital expenditure on tractors etc. except they usually have plenty of equity

oh farmers will be first in the queue for hand-outs I'm sure. Like no-one else ever suffers

err I never said handouts, I said loans

for tractors
or equipment

many farmers survive on v small margins, considering drop in prices paid for milk, pork etc.

(when I said "protected" I meant from the recession - a bit - because everyone has to eat. I didn't mean some slush fund. like the banks are getting)

'oh farmers will be first in the queue for hand-outs I'm sure. Like no-one else ever suffers '

Without farmers, the food industry pretty much isn't going to run. So I'd say fair play to them for any help they can get.

Fact of the matter is, ready-made food is created in large factories and generally by large companies.

And again, these companies need financial backing and have debts and so there's no saying, 'Yes, that's safe. You won't lose your job.'

Becuase that's not true of any job in recession.

Some of the big food manufacturers are known to have v.high levels of debt so regardless of whether people keep buying their products if the cost of their borrowing is going up or if the banks aren't happy to keep lending them money then afraid they will be at risk the same as any other industry .

There is no such thing as a "safe" industry to be in at the moment really, apart from teaching maybe.

Presumably farmers are growing that food your dp and father are processing, OP. You have an issue with farmers?

I have no issue at all with farmers. Just pointing out that other people in recessions suffer too. Anyway, loads of food is imported.

ANamesANames - are you a Daily Mail journo ?

comments like that - well after 11 years of a government that still doesn't fully understand the issues affecting farming and the countryside it's to be expected I suppose.

not a journo no, just some who would like to point out that people other than farmers suffer in recessions too. Is that such a terrble thing to say.

Absolutely we are all rolling in it making huge profits (not)

Oh well that's OK then .

Let's just import all our food, I mean food miles and animal welfare standards don't matter at all, not to mention the fact that the British countryside would look like a dustbowl/rampaging forest without the conservation that farmers do.

Did someone start a thread saying that only farmers suffer in a recession? Anywhere? Not sure where you're going with this.

We won't have to import food Georgimama, I'm quite sure the farmers will be OK

THe food industry is being hit hard atm. I should know, I work in it and I'm waiting to hear whether my job is safe. Unfortunately when people are struggling financially one of the first things to go is unnecessary pre-prepared food.

Farmers are struggling and if the farmers go under then we're all screwed.

The problem is they are not, there have been 3 farmers in a 5 mile radius of us who have had to sell their dairy herds because the figures don't add up even with the subsidies so before you start saying that we are going to be ok, go and do some research.

Farmers are being royally screwed by the supermarkets.

There are loads of them round here who can't afford to replace essential worn out equipment because they are being paid so little for their produce.