News United Kingdom
'Food security is taken for granted'
The wettest eighteen months since 1836, high costs of production inputs such as fertilizer and fuel, lower prices for agricultural products such as wheat and milk and the phasing out of the hectare premium. When you put it all together, it is not surprising that confidence among British farmers has fallen to an all-time low, as shown by the survey by the British National Farmers Union (NFU).
65% of the almost 800 participants in the survey say that the profitability of the company is under pressure or even fears for its survival. That was 50% in the previous NFU survey. “Confidence has collapsed after months of devastating floods, unsustainably high production costs, low yields and against a backdrop of reduced income support as we move to a new domestic agricultural policy,” writes Tom Bradshaw chairman of the NFU. "Every entrepreneur knows that without trust and a stable cash flow, investing is difficult and it becomes difficult to remain viable."
food security
In particular, the abolition of the CAP and income support is giving confidence a blow. Compared to the old situation, the hectare premium has been halved, while farmers need more money to get everything done. “We as NFU are concerned about the shift from a fixed hectare premium to public money for the public good,” Bradshaw writes. “Although very well intentioned, food production is taken for granted.”
According to the NFU, political parties say that food security is national security. “If they really mean that, they need to ask themselves what it will take to restore trust among farmers,” Bradshaw said. "To think that imports are the solution is naive at best, downright foolish at worst. We need a long-term vision of how we want to feed the 70 million people on this island."
Jurphaas Lugtenburg
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