Government is not serious about food self-sufficiency: Shaun Leavey

Farmers Weekly online quotes ‘one source’ as saying: “There’s no appetite or indication at all that there’s any serious attempt to encourage efficient farming and food production. It is absolutely environmentally driven.” (FWI)

Andrew Moir, a member of the Agriculture Reform Implementation Oversight Board, points out, government doesn’t understood where we are in the world at this time, “with a war still going on in Europe, with drought and floods” (FWI)

Though DEFRA secretary Michael Gove has acknowledged that upland farmers need government support (2017 onwards), he has made no specific pledge for lowland producers. The support payments being put in place focus on reducing emissions and enhancing nature.

DEFRA’s blog shows an interest in giving grants for research projects which do not focus on food production and requires applicants to bid against each other- and the recipients have to find match-funding.

Shaun Leavey, after many years working for the NFU, took on a non-executive role with DEFRA. He found that in DEFRA there was a belief that we should not be trying to achieve optimum food self-sufficiency in the UK. 

He describes its aim for “food security” as a policy based on a naive belief in a benign global situation over which as a nation we had no control, and a complacency about bringing food to the UK from across the world with no regard to its carbon footprint. (FT)

 

 

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Farmers Weekly reports that energy discounts are available for food processors but not producers – an injustice

The Energy and Trade Intensive Industry (ETII) discount scheme, which came into effect on 1 April, provides a set discount on 70% of the gas and electricity used by businesses, if wholesale prices exceed certain thresholds.

Farmers Weekly reports that these energy discounts are available to food processing and manufacturing industries – and are more generous than those available to other businesses through the Energy Bill Discount Scheme.

Those who provide the food for the manufacturers and processors are not included in the list of activities eligible for ETII discounts.

The Caterer gives a link to an official government list includes those involved in manufacturing “fresh pastry goods and cakes”, “processing and preserving meat” and “dairies and cheese making”, among others. Those who provide the ingredients, milk. flour and meat, receive nothing.

Leaders of the four main farming unions have urged the government to think again and include certain sectors of farming within the Energy and Trade Intensive Industry (ETII) discount scheme, to help ensure there is an adequate supply of food this year.

Are British food producers surplus to requirements? Is government relying on imported food to provision food manufacturers and processors?

The presidents of the four unions – the NFU, NFU Scotland, NFU Cymru and the Ulster Farmers Union – wrote to energy security secretary Grant Shapps in early March, to no avail.

in a joint statement, they said, “For the UK government not to extend the highest level of energy relief to sectors highly dependent on energy to rear, grow and store food is a failure to recognise the deteriorating position on food security.”

 

 

 

 

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Warnings about threats to food security: the farming press, a farmers’ union and the former head of MI5

As fuel and fertiliser costs soar, farmers get only a tiny share of the retail price for their produce

VIDEO: Egg shortage due to unfair supermarket prices – not avian flu: Farmers Guardian, subscribers only

Farmers Weekly reports that food and farming groups are dismayed at the wafer-thin margins left for primary producers once everyone else in the food chain has taken their share of the cash.

A new report from food and farming alliance Sustain, Unpicking Food Prices has considered a range of products commonly found on supermarket shelves and examined where the available profit goes.

Two examples: a pack of four beefburgers with a retail value of £3.50 only returns a net profit of 8.7p, the researchers estimate, while a block of Cheddar cheese, worth £2.50, generates just 3.5p in profit.

While average retail prices have risen from £2.05/kg in 2017 to £2.20/kg in 2022, farmgate returns have slumped from 60p/kg to 40p/kg over the same five-year period

But the lion’s share is kept by the retailer with farmers left to pick up the crumbs – just 0.1p from the burgers and 0.05p from the Cheddar cheese.

Head of sustainable farming at Sustain, Vicki Hird, says this demonstrates the imbalance in the food supply chain “Farmers hold a disproportionately high amount of the risk when it comes to producing food, but receive a disproportionately low amount of the reward, reflecting their relative weakness in the supply chain.”

Ms Hird should contact Baroness Eliza Manningham-Buller, former chief of MI5 the country’s security service, who says that security of food supplies would fit within the government’s own definition of national security. She believed this meant strengthening domestic supply (FT):

“Several people [have] said that [food security] was about just getting a secure food line from somewhere else . . . I’ve interpreted it differently.

“We have a hope that we will continue to get food from our nearest neighbours as we get energy from them . . . The more we can be self-sufficient, the better chances we have of withstanding price hikes, spikes, shocks and so on — and politics.”

The NFU today focussed only on the price of inputs and the need to import labour but they, the government and the former chief of MI5 need to become aware of the risk to food security posed by low returns from supermarkets as farmers’ costs soar.

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If I apply the cost-of-living index to what I was getting for milk in 1995 I’d currently be paid 45 pence a litre

As we reported in August – though the price of inputs has risen steeply – top milk price today is still in the 2013 range 

In a recent IPMS bulletin, Ian Potter republished and shared David Handley’s Western Daily Press article. David wrote: 

Anyone remotely familiar with the history of Farmers For Action will know we have never been flavour of the month with the farming establishment – well, let’s not mince words, the NFU. Particularly at a time when we were going into meetings and negotiating price deals for farmers – something the NFU would never stoop to dirty its hands with.

We proved to be very effective in putting farming’s case. And clearly people haven’t forgotten that because the more the current crisis builds in the dairy sector the more the phone calls and emails flood in accusing FFA of being partly to blame for the situation because it has taken its foot off the gas.

I take some small degree of satisfaction from the fact that such a small organisation as ours is seen as pivotal in improving the fortunes of the industry while the organisation which is supposed to represent farmers clearly isn’t.

But the reality is such at the moment that the public needs to be put on its guard against the growing possibility of a real meltdown in the dairy sector.

The latest report from industry analysts suggests that farmers need a minimum of 35 ppl to survive at the moment: a figure far in excess of what most are receiving.

Costs have indisputably risen: fertiliser is now over £600 a ton, feed has risen by more than £150 a ton and, in common with all consumers, farmers are paying more for fuel and electricity.

If I apply the cost-of-living index to what I was getting for my milk back in 1995 I should be currently paid 45 pence a litre and therefore would have the necessary spare cash for reinvestment and improvement.

Perhaps this should be regarded as a wake-up point for the industry. Perhaps we need to consider whether we should rethink our fertiliser use, seriously consider reverting to smaller herds instead of constantly scaling up; in short being rather more professional rather than simply repeating the demands for better prices.

FFA is coming under pressure to start organised protests again. Not to inconvenience huge numbers of people as the climate protestors seem to enjoy doing but to raise the issue of dairy farming’s precarious state with the general public and so harness public opinion to support us.

I’d like to think that there might be some hard negotiating between processors and retailers but from my experience of 20 years or so ago that seems an unrealistic expectation.

When negotiations were held previously the processors would come out and tell me they’d been shown the door, invited to use it and certainly not to bother asking for more money. On the other hand, when we spoke to the retailers they would assure us that the matter of more money hadn’t even been mentioned. Which of the two versions to believe? Neither, in my view.

Ian Potter comments: “Farmers and processors simply cannot carry these costs”.

LANCASHIRE DAIRY FARMER ‘S COMMENT

The cost of haulage required for all farm inputs as well as for transporting milk must be factored in to food chain costs and prices as the cost of diesel has risen phenomenally in the last 12 months and the poor road network with continual hold ups does nothing to help. Neither does delays and continual hold ups at either the despatch point or delivery destination. It seems to me that hauliers prices are screwed down to the bone in the same way that farm gate prices always have been.

When we once protested in Asda I recall customers apologising for buying the milk but saying they really needed it. Which was why the retailers know they have customers over a barrel when they use milk as a loss leader to reduce the end basket price. Asda and Tesco, used to play ping pong with Arla and Muller who undercut each other continually in the chase for volume, leaving the much publicised dedicated supplies a sham system that capped prices especially when all other milk buyers looked to Tesco for a lead in the price war.

Thank goodness David Handley stuck out to Asda when they took him and FFA to court and lost!! The NFU only take the glory and sits back and watch as others take the flack and do the dirty work. David Handley is a very competent and professional hands on leader. He knows his stuff and FFA protests were always well run. Whether others like him or not, he could move mountains that other farmer representatives could never do even though they were always good at taking the credit.

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Dairy crisis: Sean Rickard talks sense!

Douglas MacSkimming reports: “Milk prices are teetering on a precipice, with fears that farmgate returns to producers could drop as low as 25p a litre by Christmas.

“Arla AMCO producers face a 1.2p drop from September 1, taking the standard litre price down to 30.38p which, excluding the butterfat adjustment of 0.8p and the estimated 13th payment of 0.81p, gives a standard litre paid out price of 28.97p. And as The Scottish Farmer went to press the Muller/Wiseman farmer board was meeting with expectations of a cut set to kick-in from October 1”.

Today the 25p level has arrived

On Farming Today, dairy analyst Ian Potter confirms the serious impact of this low price as MacSkimming forecasts only 10% of Scottish farmers will survive.

At a recent First Milk producer meeting, the co-op’s vice-chairman Nigel Evans, addressed members on Jim Struthers’ Auchmeddan farm, Leshmahagow, outlining how serious things had become:  “I’m afraid the market is very ugly and getting uglier. I fear prices will drop further.

“One of the problems we have is that we no longer have any support mechanism to help us out, to put a floor on the market. The global situation is adding to our problems with the the Russian ban on dairy products starting to hit home, especially on the cheese front. There is a lot of product in stock in the US, New Zealand and Ireland, with milk volume in the US up 4%. Medium to long-term we may need more milk when global conditions improve, short-term however we must get a balance between supply and demand”.

A later article in the Scottish Farmer forecasts a winter of penury as worldwide dairy markets face up to an oversupply problem which is expected to last for 15-18 months. Government sponsored agencies and industry bodies, like DairyCo, NFU Scotland, Scotland’s Food and Drink etc are urged to contact producers and try to get production back in step with demand.

DairyCo’s advice – valuable?

With the recent volatility in global dairy markets impacting UK farmgate prices, it is even more important to be efficient with input costs, and monitor those markets as well (Dairy Market Weekly 28.08.14).

Economist Sean Rickard for once gets it right: he is actually advising food producers to unite because of the imbalance of power. We add that British dairy, arable, meat and horticultural sectors should combine to achieve fair prices as standard practice in this country – and leave exporters determined to risk the world market to do so.

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Fair Trade for UK food producers – a lost cause?

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In 2006, Michael Hart [Small and Family Farmers’ Alliance] – following negotiations with the Soil Association & the Fairtrade Foundation – emailed:

“While I continue to like the idea of fair trade for UK farmers (in fact for all farmers). I suspect that, in order to work, it would have to be done by the UK farming organisations working together . . . 

In 2007-2008 there was active campaigning for a fair deal for food producers see details here:

• The Farmers’ Union of Wales,
• Farm,
• National Federation of Women’s Institutes,
• Church of Scotland,
• NFU,
• Farmers Guardian,
• Country Living magazine,
• The Church of England’s Ethical Investment Advisory Group,
• The National Pig Association,
• NFU Scotland,
• The Scottish Fair Trade Forum,
• Farmers for Action,
• And MPs Lindsay Hoyle, Roger William, Andrew George, Elfyn Llwyd, AWP Mick Bates

Letters to the NFU’s farming organisations, each representing producers in different sectors and to individual food producers, hoping for a wider input got no such result.

Michael Hart has been proved right and the sad conclusion of the editor of this website is that Fair Trade for UK food producers is indeed a lost cause, despite his campaigning and the stalwart efforts of the late Andrew Hemming, David Handley Kathleen Calvert and William Taylor.

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Divided and ruled: no co-operation within; TTIP: an imperial enemy without

 

The Journal, a north-eastern daily, reports that farming union leaders met in London for a ‘presidential’ summit in June.

Representatives from the IFA, UFU, NFUS, NFU Cymru and the NFU were unanimous that the current downward spiral of farmgate prices was causing serious damage to farmers’ confidence and called for an end to the short termism that will threaten the long term future of the beef supply.

They urged retailers, processors and caterers to start to take responsibility for the decisions they make and the impact those decisions have on the sustainability of the beef sector. Waitrose and Dovecote Park, its dedicated beef supplier, were singled out for their ongoing long-term commitment to their producers. Waitrose sells only British beef in its stores.

NFU president Meurig Raymond said: “Consumers made it clear during Horsegate that they value shorter supply chains, with provenance high on their agenda. At that time major retailers made statements of the importance of economically sustainable supply chains and a commitment to build confidence with producers for a long-term supply of beef. Now is the time that is going to test how deep those commitments run.”

UK union leaders were united on the need for government and businesses to work to ensure that any beef imports meet the same high standards as those asked of British and Irish assured beef. But . . .

High standards – and prices – under threat from cheap imports

All this is under threat. Negotia­tions for the Transatlantic Trade and Invest­ment Partnership (TTIP) – a wide-ranging trade pact between the United States and the European Union – include rethinking the EU’s bans on genetically modified (GM) goods, hormone-treated beef, and chlorine-washed poultry products, regulations which have been in place in the EU for years to protect EU consumers.

Beef production is America’s largest agricultural sector, with more than 1,000,000 businesses, farms and ranches. Texas heads the list of the country’s top ten beef producers in 2012.

Today there will be another farmers’ union meeting in London but the writer sees no hope for any improvement in conditions for food producers until milk, meat, poultry, egg, fruit and vegetables producers work together across the board, instead of focussing only on their own sector’s interests. To date the industry has been successfully divided and ruled.

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Farmers’ lives shortened to give company shareholders, high flying consultants and industry leaders a substantial income and maximise corporate profits

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A FDF adviser – also a dairy farmer – writes about the death of Andrew Hemming:

 

This is so sad, I heard him speak at a few protests and meetings he attended in our area and he came over as caring, dedicated to our cause, and inspirational. I am truly sorry that his life has been cut short at such an early age and send his family my heartfelt sympathy.

I fear the same for members of other equally dedicated and caring farming families who are also fighting desperately for survival. They also may be shortening their lives by working far harder than is reasonable, or safe for their health, just in order to feed animals, meet bills and survive in a ruthlessly competitive target driven industry where maximising profit is considered by some as more important than people or animals, and for what?

 

To give company shareholders, high flying consultants and industry leaders a substantial income and maximise corporate profits?

 

All we ask is control of our own destiny by earning a fair and honest living from the land we are responsible for, with income derived from producing a good source of staple food that people need, and to leave a realistic and sustainable future for our families and communities, which is what Andrew was working so hard to achieve.

 

We do not want this continual conflict, and I am certain that Andrew didn’t

 

It is 2 years since Asda wielded their massive financial power to intimidate Andrew, David Handley and the other FFA regional coordinators by taking them to court. Their crime was to help secure a fair price for our milk, which we are still seeking.

 

The NFU meanwhile stepped back and watched

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If the retailers were in the slightest bit concerned about dedicated farmers like Andrew Hemmings, or their families, they would not still be flaunting their massive corporate power in farmers’ faces aided by accolades like “grocer 33” for effectively and continually undercutting others, while using our milk as a loss leader or giving it away free with cereal etc.

 

We surely owe it to Andrew and his family to carry out what he set out to achieve.

The memory and cause of this stalwart campaigner will live on

 

Andrew Hemming, vice-chairman of Farmers for Action and Central Warwickshire NFU chairman, passed away suddenly on Saturday and will be sadly missed by his family, friends and colleagues.

 

He had become a nationally recognised dairy activist and was an apparently tireless campaigner in all weathers, causing some to wonder what toll it was taking.

The writer, who knew him for years, called on this FDF adviser from time to time for information and found the best way to get hold of him was to ring his mobile before 9am during morning milking, though the sound of work in progress – swishing and clanking – hampered reception. The last point he explained carefully was the nature and implications of the ‘spot price’.

We attended the 2005 Annual and Special Meeting of Midlands Co-operative Society in Birmingham with members of the Heart of England Farmers’ Co-operative, which supplied 92% of the Dairy’s milk, after hearing rumours about the future of the Dairy. Five days later all were stunned to hear that it was to be taken over by Dairy Crest. Staff at the processing, bottling and packing plant lost their jobs and there were considerable losses to their local economies, including serious damage to the transport firms who had served the Dairy for many years.

 

 

Two years later he nominated Waitrose for a Fair Deal award as they were the first supermarket to respond to the crisis that has been facing dairy farmers for the past ten years. Pictured in Hall Green, Birmingham.

Earlier this year we met West Midlands MEP, Phillip Bennion, at the Hemming farm and had a long and informative discussion about the problems facing underpaid dairy farmers, reported on the website of the Fair Deal Food Campaign.

The last time many will have seen him was on today’s BBC TV Sunday Politics Show, during the regional roundup, when he spoke about a demonstration in Droitwich.

 

As I put on two local websites: his work will not be finished until we can all put fairly traded milk in our Fairtrade coffee.

 

Isn`t the expected farmgate milk price base line now 30p per litre?

 

The National Farmers’ Union (NFU) estimates the cost of production is 30p a litre of milk but Arla direct supply contract is launched with a 29p December price.yet many seem quite happy with that.

 

Earlier a dairy farmer had written, “ Arla: Expect a visit from us soon!”

He commented: the NFU objectives are:

1) reverse the prices cuts (so far so good)

2) fairer contracts (so you don’t have to keep supplying milk if they drop the price)

3) producer organisations to redress the balance of power in the supply chain.

 

All worthy objectives to get a fair deal for UK farmers I trust we all support.

Some supermarket contracts pay farmers based on cost of production (Tesco, Waitrose, M&S being the best). Processing contracts don’t because butter, cheese etc has to compete on the shelves with produce from Ireland, NZ etc so unless we ban imports or get consumers to pay a premium for UK produce it is unlikely to change.

 

Another farmer asked him about conflict of interest:

Why is Milk Link allowing itself to be taken over by Arla (I know they say it is a merger but that is not what the market experts call it they say it is a take over)?

Milk Link will then be in a company which markets New Zealand diary products under the Anchor brand here in the UK – surely there is a conflict of interests here in that NZ will always have a cheaper cost of production than here so be able to put milk products on the supermarket shelf cheaper then UK producers. So why do so many think it will be a good thing? In my experience most don’t seem to even know that Arla markets Anchor here.

 

The reply

I think Milk Link were wrong to get involved and should have merged with First Milk instead. Following the protest at Iceland they agreed to open their books to show they had not cut the price they were paying for milk all year.

 

I understand Arla have now blocked that audit. What have they got to hide?

Where does Arla stand in the eyes of readers who are dairy farmers?