Did any of my fellow Brits watch Lie of the Land last night on Channel 4? If you didn't, it was a documentary about some of the struggles British farms are facing to survive. Cheaper imports and power of the supermarkets have created market forces whereby many farms are now closing as they cannot financially compete. If it continues, it will completely change the face of rural Britain. My question is, do you care? When shopping, do you look for what is personally more cost effective, or do you actively try to buy home grown produce? From discussions I've had with others today, the majority have said they will buy, say, beef from Brazil rather than British, if it is cheaper. They don't want to pay more on their bottles of milk and potentially supporting local dairy farmers. Milk is milk and meat is meat. Some of the scenes in the documentary were quite gory. Healthy calves being shot in the head because the farmers cannot afford to keep them. Tales of game birds being battery farm produced instead of being raised in traditional, healthy ways to keep costs down. It's one of my pet issues, I have to confess. General opinion on it really interests me.
I like to buy organic, which is usually grown in America. If the season is right, I'll stop in Clanton and pick up some peaches. Other than that, I'll eat the corn and watermelon's from our farm but that's about it.
While I didn't see the programme, this is all too often the attitude of many. Either compete or go down trying. Thousands of small farms have closed up shop here in the states because of increased costs for operations without the ability for the farmer to recoup his losses through passing the costs to the consumer. "Free" trade is not free by any stretch of the imagination. Perhaps this latest row with the melamine added in China will slap someone into action, but then again, with the push for ethanol driving the cost of everything up through the short sightedness of a few it'll be a miracle if it doesn't get much worse. Milk has gone up .60 this year just from the additional costs of corn. Staples have increased more than they normally would due to this one manipulation, and I only see it getting worse as we go. Unfortunately, if a farmer wants to make money, he has to go with the crop that pays the bills, and this year corn seems to be it. Soy beans, down. Grain, down. All from a feel good measure that really does nothing but line politicians pockets. Personally, I do what I can at the local market but there's so many factors to consider it gets a bit overwhelming at times.
IMHO, part of the problem is that generally consumers like everything sanitised. Uniform looking fruit and veg; meat in nice cellophane packages. Carving up half a cow with blood stains to be seen is repulsive to them, yet if the meat is all neat and packed it's not seen to be from a cow that was grazing in a field not long ago and the conscience is clear. Never mind that that beef from abroad may not have the same standard of welfare applied as what the local farmers have to obey... Another thing that gets me irritated is that when the small farmer does try to make a decent living, he is still undercut by those that can. Farmers Markets -- popular with those who like to think they are trendy and organic -- have sprung up and the canny big businesses have jumped on this bandwagon. Apparently, there are numerous Farmers Markets doing a roaring trade around Greater London. At many of these markets, there are traders selling Isle of Wight Tomatoes. Reportedly, this company buys its tomatoes, cucumbers and aubergines from a company called Wight Salads. Wight Salads have a turnover in excess of £60M a year supplying... the UK supermarkets. So one would be buying the same tomatoes that Tesco are selling at the Farmer's Market, but at twice the price! EDIT: And as for milk, I was talking to our agricultural chap here today and the stats according to him are:- 1995 Farmer = 24.5p per litre 2007 Farmer = 18p per litre 2002 Tesco selling milk at 44p per litre 2007 Tesco selling milk at 53p per litre No wonder the dairy farms are going, going, gone. Soon we won't see any cows out in t'fields
i don't have a massive amount of sympathy for farmers, times change and you either move with them or go the way of the dinosaurs. they've had opportunities to combine into co-operatives to combat the supermarkets leverage, and to diversify - there are UK farms doing very nicely by having shifted to producing things like garlic and chillis which sell to speciality shops as well as supermarkets for a nice profit. as for healthy calves being killed, thats always happened - they used to be turned into 'bully beef', but thats no longer viewed as 'acceptable' food, so now they're dog food.
Almost all of my produce is organic which is grown locally. I get my meat from a local butcher, because it's cheaper (most the time) and it's not nearly as fatty, tastes better, etc. Milk I buy, I can't remember if it's local or not, but it comes from cows who were not fed growth hormones. It is rare I get 'fresh' foods from the local supermarkets, especially since local produce tastes so much better and is either cheaper or not much more expensive to bother saving a few pennies. The only time I might not get locally produced produce is during the winter, when it is sometimes hard to find.
as for purchasing stuff myself, i tend to go for a mix of cheap and quality depending on how its going to be used. i tend to buy organic milk as its sweeter, but i tend not to buy british meat as the increase in quality is rarely worth the increase in price.
I disagree, simply because there is a perception of big farmers sitting on massive subsidies and loads of land. In a lot of cases, this isn't true. Also, as I mentioned above, the degree of welfare that now has to be given is comforting to know when wondering what you're scranning. I don't know if the beef from Argentina has come from a cow that has such standards applied to it's life. Finally, I like my countryside as it is. Diversifying is all well and good, but switching to a produce that is currently fashionable means it has a limited demand. If all farmers did the same, each market would become saturated, surely? And they are back to square one. Divresifying requires investment and a gamble which at the moment they can't afford. Farming staple foods (what they know about and have lived and breathed for years) is seen, IMHO, a long term better bet, so I can understand why they do so.
Usually organic milk - but I admit, I buy it at Tesco. Most of the time we go to a decent local butcher for meat and stock up the freezer, so it's British, because the butcher names all the suppliers he deals with. Fruit and veg - usually organic, and again usually from Tesco, so I'm well aware that most of it is flown in. I try to make up for it by growing what I can. I have to say, the farmers don't do themselves any favours when it comes to PR. The ones round here tend to go on about how poor they are while driving round the countryside in newish Range Rovers and planting hectares of sod-all but oil-seed rape, which not only looks hideous, but stinks, and set off other half's asthma.
in those cases its even more imperative to change farming and sales practices. how many scrubland sheep-farmers have gone to the wall due to boneheadly continuing doing the same-old same-old, utterly oblivious to the market in lamb and mutton to the asian and afro-caribbean communities? there are specialized markets that have had to go out and find farmers to provide this, despite there being a demand since the 60's. fair enough. it need not mean limited demand, a couple of farms in the south east are now producing oriental vegetables that are in demand throughout the nation, both from supermarkets and chinese food retailers. there is also enough of a wide variety that the markets need not be saturated - as for investment, these changes have been ongoing since the 60's, they've had half a century to start changes, even something as simple as dedicating a small area to producing something like peppers to test demand. and the very moment income started reducing, that should've rung alarm bells and started research and investment in alternatives. farming isn't just a way of life, its a business, and like all other businesses its wide open to market shifts. and as for expecting the traditional fares to come back in vogue, thats foolish - they never went out of fashion, they just form part of a much wider range of foodstuffs these days.
If it were up to me, all farm subsidies and protectionist trade policies would be summarily abolished. Whether or not that happens, I will continue buying what's more cheap and widely-available. Nobody deserves a prosperous career that's not supported by the market demand for their wares. I don't wanna hear "but this is my home," "I'm doing what I love," or "my family has worked in agriculture for ten generations". If you can't turn a profit as a farmer without government interferance and manipulation, you need find another line of work, period.
I always try to buy locally produced stuff. Not out of any great sympathy for farmers - although I don't approve of the power which the supermarkets are obtaining - but because it's more environmentally friendly. I don't like the idea that food is being shipped half way around the world rather than just down the road.
Also be aware that beef from Brazil has the other sidee effect that they are cutting down the rain forest to raise the beef. The Amazon rain forest is the biggest producer of oxygen in the world. Global warming and all that.
I knew you would say that. I personally believe that farmers can't turn a profit because of government interference and manipulation. It's created a false market. UK farmers have lots of costly red tape, some foreign farmers don't. Foreign farmers have lower cost of production, therefore it's cheaper. Subsidies go to landowners. Small farmers get very little for a lot of hassle.
yes, which is you have to experiment a bit, but british farmland has a wonderful range which allows for various plants to produce different qualities. for example, the chillis grown in the richer farmlands of the south west can be powerful hot, whilst ones in more scrubby north east are less nuclear, but have a richer taste.
my opinion is the Summerteeth is adorable! (I didn't read any of this thread, but can't resist a chance to butter her up!)
Exactly what I was going to say. I'll admit that when BSE (mad cow) broke out in England, it gave me a bit of a smirk, considering how regulated English agriculture is.
I'm picky about my produce, it has to be fresh, and I have to know that my meat was cut locally, not at some distribution center 500 miles away. I don't like canned fruit or vegetables (exception to pineapple, which doesn't grow locally anyways). I don't buy into the "organics" fad, milk is milk, growth hormones don't bother me.
I don't buy into any snobby food fads. I keep myself conditioned to tolerate eating pretty much any kind of food, in case I find myself relying on something less than desirable to survive, and I refuse to be a pain in the ass as a guest or restaraunt patron.
Growth hormones make me feel ill when I drink milk which comes from cows that were raised on it. Organic foods just taste better and are the same price usually around here.
How free is an English farmer? Can he grow what he wants, constantly shift according to market trends? Or are certain crops mandated? For instance there is a subsidy on wheat, but that hardly keeps us from spending most of our time with alfalfa, a crop that receives no payments, is more profitable, and a hell of a lot more work. We planted our grapes, and we needed no permit, no permission, we just did it. Is it the same for a Brit?
WTF is snobby about it? What is a 'fad' about it? Or are these just judgements you've made, due to opinions you've formed about a few people who preach about those qualities in food? Because you know, you can eat/buy those so-called 'snobby' foods and still be a guest and resturant patron like everyone else.
Top of the head stuff here, but nobody mandates what anyone grows - not even the EU. There are various subsidies, and there are also payments for set-aside land that isn't being used for anything. AFAIK, the only thing that's actually restricted is dairy farming, through the milk quota scheme, but seeing as normal dairy farming (allegedly) isn't profitable, I don't see how being prevented doing too much hurts anyone. And even then, some dairy farmers have turned to using their milk to make their own ice cream. Quotas don't count, in that case.
Here in Canada, I believe they can get a government agency to put a stamp of approval on something if it really is organic. There are strict guidelines, from what I read in the paper. And it seems people buying organic produce has taken off here, and some farms have become pretty successful. For myself, I buy organic veggies, but usually the meats I'll just get the regular kind.
The subsidies aren't mandatory, the milk quotas are if you want to sell milk. But as I said, there's nothing wrong with you turning it into butter, or ice cream, or cheese, and selling it yourself. Quite a few farmers have done rather well out of that. edit: to evenflow
