"The Lie of the Land" - Will you be a vegetarian on Friday

Mary_Hartnell

funnylittlefrog wrote: »

Here is my 2 cents..
I'm sure your income is a great deal better than your local farmer.
Farmers are only rich though the land they own - by selling this they would have no income without turning to complete change of career which isnt likely for the average farmer in 50s/60s.
I think its horrible the way the government treats british farmers today - a preference of foreign food and letting supermarkets rule the economy
as only a teenage daughter of a farmer i cant explain the way the system works but i do know that its a joke how farmers are treated these days.
farmers used to be valued members of society who grew crops, raised animals and supplied milk - now they are seen in a very sterotypical light e.g. they must be loaded because they can sell land to make new villages or housing estates. The programme could have done a very successful job of educationing people who are unaware where food comes from expect tesco or asda wrapped in plastic and an insight into this unjustice against british farmers today - but instead showed mostly the slaughtering of animals and a heavy focus on hunting.

Hi Frog,

I'm sure you would not be breaking the trust between you and your family, if you told us, after all we don't know who you are.

Does you family own land ?
Does your family farm land ?
Can you tell us how many acres?
(Many farmers get very confused about their roles. A farmer drives a tractor and produces food - it is a long hours & hard work BUT tens of thousands want to do it.
There is no problem getting farmers to rent. Farm rents have not dropped to zero per acre, like they did here in Essex in the 1890's & 1930's.
A landowner collects rents and makes a fortune if he can get "change of use" on the land.)

I will assume your family own and farm their own land?

What sort of food do you produce?
Where in the country is your farm?

I am really interested in the plight of livestock farmers shown in the documentary, say somebody with a nice 250 acre family farm.

Here is a link to a rich landowner & grain farmer from Cambridge, the county with the highest proportion of Grade One land. (Not the Grade 3 land featured in the film).

http://www.guardian.co.uk/country/article/0,2763,1444597,00.htm

WOOPS that link is not working, you will have to do what I did:

Click past the front page of Google.co.uk into "advanced search".
Put: Oliver Walston ;into the "exact phrase" box and click "google search".

At the top of the search list you should get this:

Oliver Walston: Farmers keep quiet over annual subsidy | Special ...
As a custodian of the landscape and the environment, I am worth every penny of my hefty annual farming subsidy Oliver Walston Thursday March 24, 2005 ...
https://www.guardian.co.uk/country/article/0,2763,1444597,00.html - 43k - Cached - Similar pages

Read Mr Walston's discussion about bashful farmers, down to the end where he gives thanks for his subsidy cheque.

I can promise you I don't have an income anything like the cheque he gets from the government (ie the rest of us!). He would continue to collect this king's ransom year after year, even if all he did was spray the land with "Roundup" weed killer, a few times a year. (No that is not quite true, he is probably an expert in farming subsidies and so gets extra bonuses for re-planting his hedges, digging ponds for newts etc. etc.)

best wishes,

Mary

funnylittlefrog

My family does own land. Originally were a dairy farm, arable and beef. But were basically driven out of that I’m not sure the exact year 1997/1998- it wasn’t worth milking for the pennies it was making and having an employee for that area. It’s a common thing farmers have to take on other areas - letting property, other animals, horses, and game, whatever makes money. The focus is on beef and arable now. I'm not sure about the acres (I would have to ask). My father works full time (farmer full time!) and one employee who work full time. My mother now helps every morning, most evenings and peak times driving tractors. My older brother helps when he can driving tractors and old jobs (he works in IT normally). During school holidays we have help from two boys who plan to go into this area. My grin completes some forms and the money side - wages etc. my granddad father also helps as and when but his in his 80s and with hip and knee replacements. But you need all these people to get most of it done. It’s a daily struggle. The amount of paperwork to farm and not be breaking rules and regulations etc is terrible - both my mum and dad spend hours completing it.
I'm at 6th college and I focus on that because I wont be following a farming career (long days, during the summer my father works at least from 7-9 only stopping for meals) for very little.
Its sad that all farmers have worked for over the years - they have been forced into a corner by government and people who don’t understand to comply or sell up live on what’s left and when that runs out take on something.
They wonder why children have allergies, our mis-educated about what is good food and where it comes from. I think it’s sad. I've grown on a farm I now where food should come from (no idea about the supermarkets though) my only allergy is penicillin, hardly visit the doctors never had any serious health problems. the countryside is a healthy way to live - I can enjoy all the benefits of the town but its nice to drive away from pollution, supermarket giant on ever corner, traffic etc.

Mary_Hartnell

Hi Frog,

I was going to add a comment to my posting of yesterday, but you have beaten me to it.

Here is a link to a program on the radio this morning:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/factual/onyourfarm.shtml

Alex James, the farmer at 'Daisy's Dairy' must be Superman, to do what he does with 4 little children too. I hope you can listen to it on your PC if you did not hear it this morning?

There were some interesting facts that spilled out of Alex:
Farmers in New Zealand get as little 7 pence a litre. The village shop is taking 25 pence a pint BUT Alex gets 42 pence a pint from his commuter (?) customers for "Daisy's" milk. He is also doing a fine job to educate school children about milk makes butter etc. etc. (It takes me back to my childhood staying with farming relatives).

I then put 'Daisy's Dairy' into google and asked for UK sites only, amongst some really weird stuff, I found this:

http://www.theyworkforyou.com/whall/?gid=2007-03-14a.126.1

I knew what the "Putney Debates" were, but now I have learned that there is some where at Westminster where MP's can have a rational discussion. A bit like in Stockholm where the MP's have to sit arranged geographically not by party opposite each other.

Mary.

funnylittlefrog

I've edited my post to remove the location but I'd thought I would mention it as you had quoted about grade 1. There is a few farmers but those nosy people can read and understand, i havent commented anything too personal.
I hope more farmers can do what they came - produce goods from the farm gate, local farm shops etc however i think the govt, the system will win forcing farmers out and the UK will be left in a sorry state with cheap imported food and supermarket ruling everything (i'm surprised they dont have their own tv channels were they could brainwash the population)

Mary_Hartnell

Hi Frog,

As I thought yesterday, Mr Walston does know how to work the system:

http://www.thriplow-farms.co.uk/annual/2006.htm

On this thread he explains how it works for a 2000 acre farm, probably on pretty good land. ("Money goes to Money" as they say where I live.)

Questions: How big is Poland, where they have been told they cannot have subsidies? What id the average rate of pay of a Polish farm worker (I don't know the answers but I expect Google does)

Mary

An after thought; how would your dad respond if you volunteered to be "Ecology Manager"?

After after thought: I think I chipped in about 200GBP directly into the farmer/landowner benefit fund last year, but that does not include what I paid by having to pay European prices for my food.

djfizz

PurpleDuck wrote: »

i got my own chickens as that was the only way I could be 100% certain they were free range and happy. After that scandal a little while back about the battery eggs labelled as free range you just can't be certain till you see things with your own eyes :sad:

Pork I buy from a farmer who lets me feed the pigs! All other meat I've stopped eating.

We did the same thing with chickens - Although they live in Mother-in-Laws garden. We live in a flat! Having seen the colour of the yolks from our first batch of eggs, ie what colour they should really be, has put me off buying supermarket eggs for life!

harryhound

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?p=5178463#post5178463

Mary_Hartnell

Now there is a revolt going on complete with a song:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=483645&highlight=Anthem

ScoobieGirl

linzibean wrote: »

Having said that, a lot of "free range" products leave a lot to be desired, so I hope they will cover this aspect too.

Oh no, don't say that. I assume some suppliers are better than others? WHich ones are better rated?

Gemmzie

Interesting, just found this thread was actually searching for food allergies.

I'll put my hands up and show my ignorance, I live in Cornwall and knew nothing of what farmers had to do to make a living now. It sort of makes it worse that the farmer in the film is my mother's cousin!

And I see Tesco have since put out a range of milk from your local area, and it's more money - wonder how much of that is going back to the local farmers?