We’re All Fed by Farmers

I’ve recently added the ‘Fed by Farmers’ podcast to my list of favourites. Please give it a listen. It’s hosted by Cammy Wilson, a charismatic sheep farmer from Ayrshire who is also a famous YouTuber. His channel ‘The Sheep Game’ went viral recently when he rescued the world’s loneliest sheep from a remote cliff in Scotland.  The title of his podcast is true for each and every one of the 8 billion people who now call this planet home, and it’s got me thinking that if our very existence depends on farmers producing food then they must be the most valued of all the professions. Sadly, this is far from true.

Across Europe, farmers have been expressing their frustration with the ever-increasing mountain of policies that are ever more difficult to navigate.  France, Germany, Spain, Holland, Belgium have all had their major cities and roads blocked by the farmers we all depend on.  But why?  Why are the policymakers in Europe and across the world not appreciating the importance of food and the vital role of the farmers who produce it?.

The UK is probably in the worst situation of all, with devolved governments all having different polices and all four government departments seemingly unable to grasp the importance and the necessity for clarity.  Europe’s farmers have taken the militant approach to vent their anger and recently Welsh farmers have gone down a similar path, although we don’t do revolution as effectively as our French neighbours.

Today, our farmers are struggling to adapt to a complete change in policy from food production to ‘environmental good’. Take the Net Zero policy for example. It simply does not stack up financially.  Back in 2019, Net Zero was costed at £1 trillion by the Conservative Government and since then this cost has multiplied to almost £5 trillion – well over 90% of total UK GDP.  So what will the cost be by 2050? No-one really knows, but it will certainly be crippling and it will have a significant negative impact on food production.

The UK governments of the 21^st century have all been wilfully complicit in allowing our food security to be undermined by choosing imported products from overseas.  This has been a fantastic policy for supermarket profits, and it’s allowed food to be sold in the UK that does not meet animal welfare and environmental standards our farmers are expected to achieve.  Not surprising then that 2022 had the lowest Total Farm Income recorded this century.  Just imagine the backlash if the Government introduced a policy that you had to continue to work the same hours for less money.

Closer to home, tenant farmers are now being encouraged to either give up their tenancies or remain on the farm and be green keepers as landlords take the government handouts to rewild productive land, plant trees and wildflowers, and reinstate peat wetlands.  Our so-called leaders now take their directives from celebrities and billionaires who are diametrically opposed to the notion of traditional food production and would prefer us all to eat insects.

It’s time to wake up! My solution is a complete overall at Westminster. Holland has achieved this with a new political party called the Farmer-Citizen Movement formed after the Dutch government imposed new laws that slashed livestock numbers in Holland.  The new party took 19% of the popular vote in last year’s Dutch elections. The UK’s options in this year’s up-coming General Election will be either Conservative or Labour.  Neither have an ambitious or progressive food production policy and both are focused firmly on policies that will continue to put more strain on our farmers.  The only glimmer of light we have seen was Labour’s U-turn on their manifesto pledge to commit £28 billion annual support for green polices.

Every day we are all Fed by Farmers.  They don’t really need your  support; all they need is to be given the ability to do what they do so brilliantly, without the restrictions and laboursome bureaucracy that has become so stifling. The past two years have shown us that the fully-stocked food shelves that we take for granted won’t necessarily always be full. The global food chain and the world-wide shipping supply lines are fragile and can at times be broken, and that’s why we need a total reform in the way we think about farming in the UK.

In the meantime, my thanks to all the food producers in the UK, because today I was Fed by Farmers!