Archived News

12th November 2008

Laurence is up at Stoneleigh today for the National Farmer Union (NFU) National Crops Board Meeting, where members meet from all regions.  Amongst the topics being discussed will be any new policies due to come in, the state of the arable industry in these difficult financial times, the cost of fertilisers which have gone through the roof - and stayed there and set-aside. 

Laurence heard from a south east farmer at the weekend who had just completed his budget for next year. On a 1500 acre arable farm employing one man, they are set to make a profit of just £950 in 2009.  There are some big food businesses out there making money, and of course the supermarkets are hardly struggling, but how much longer will such farms continue to produce our food? 

Would we rather eat more imported food with massively increased food miles and never truly know it’s origin?  We need to demand more regional food from our supermarket and put pressure on them to pass more of their profits back to the farmers, and as consumers we should be prepared to pay what the food is worth – if not British farmers will continue to go out of business and our countryside will go into decline.

Contractors will be at Abinger today forage harvesting the maize which we have sold to a farmer south of here, whose own maize crop failed this year.