Retail price wars – good news for consumers, or is it?

Photo by ysiris on Flickr

THE consumer is king. So when the perfect storm arises of a global food commodity price rise at a time when consumers are feeling the pinch on the High Street, retailers have no qualms about what they have to do.

Retailers are protecting British consumers from the full-force of global commodity cost increases, with ‘unprecedented levels’ of discounting, the British Retail Consortium boasted this week.

UK must fight hard on CAP reform

The UK is historically perceived as being on the periphery of EU negotiations on key issues like the euro, the budget or the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).

Despite Caroline Spelman’s insistence that the coalition Government is determined to embark on the next round of CAP reform in a spirit of ‘positive relationships’ with EU partners, her comments this week suggested the same old story may be about to unfold.

Her clearly stated desire to push for a substantial shift of funds away from direct payments and towards pillar 2 rural development policies seems to put her odds with other member states and Brussels.

Nocton Dairies – planning for a better future?

At long last the planning application for Nocton has been submitted. With fewer than half the original cow numbers, the people behind the development will be hoping this will be enough of a change to enable the permission to be granted with fewer objections.

But almost 4,000 cows is still a lot by anyone’s standards. And there will be little doubt that people in the villages surrounding the proposed development will think there are about 3,500 cows too many.

Sketchy details of CSR impact testing farmers’ faith in Government

The Comprehensive Spending Review announcement was not the ‘big bang’ many in the farming industry had feared.

The October 20 announcement certainly delivered on its promise of massive budget cuts for Defra and its agencies’.

But establishing how the £700m cut would impact on the industry has not been straightforward. The details were initially sketchy, at best, and on occasions where they were provided, confusing.

Farm safety – vital, but too often ignored

NO-ONE ever plans to have an accident. In farming, most people are fairly aware of the risks they face. And many are also aware of the risks they take – often on a regular basis.

But few, perhaps, take the time to consider the consequences for them or their family or friends should that risk turn out to be the one time things go catastrophically wrong.

Organic and conventional producers must pull together for UK farming

‘Yes, perhaps we have upset the conventional farming community by continually saying we were right and they were wrong.’

 It is one of the most surprising quotes in Farmers Guardian this week, most of all because it came from former Soil Association director Patrick Holden.

For too long, the Soil Association has worked on the premise that organic is good, while conventional farming is inferior in some way.

For its former director to say organic farmers should ‘not be out there thinking and talking of ourselves as organic farmers because that separates us from the rest of the farming community’ is such a massive change of direction, it beggars belief.

Having retired from the post, Mr Holden is free from having to toe the party line, but it is a line about which he was very clear as director.

His latest comments will not have gone unnoticed by his previous employer.

Spending cuts will test Defra to its limit

Farmers and civil servants are not natural bedfellows.

Ask anyone who has been on the receiving end of an RPA inspection or who has been subject to an Environment Agency investigation.

For many, the very mention of bureaucracy and inspections is enough to bring on a feeling of impending doom. So, is it any wonder that the story most commented on this week at www.farmersguardian.com is headlined Defra spending cuts will be bloody.

There were precious few people on our website willing to stick up for Defra, and even fewer who were positive about Natural England and the Environment Agency.

CAP reform: The stuff of nightmares?

So, what’s it to be? What does Europe really want its farmers to do? Does it want them to produce food, or go for a greener approach, managing their land for the public good?

These questions – and many, many more – desperately require answering after the leak of a European Commission draft on the next round of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).

While it is only a draft of something which hasn’t even yet been discussed, the ideas in the document very clearly show where Commissioner Ciolos believes the CAP needs to go. And that’s a greener approach, where farmers are paid, in part, for the environmental work they undertake, in addition to a basic rate of income support.

It’s an interesting move when for so long now, farmers have been told they must become increasingly aware of what the market is doing, and that it should drive production.

It is only a couple of years ago that we saw food riots in other parts of the world, and while Europe hasn’t yet faced this (and, in all likelihood won’t), worldwide supply still drives prices, as is graphically illustrated this season.

In the UK, the leak has produced an interesting split, with the RSPB and CLA on one side – supporting the “greening” approach, while the NFU is warning the draft ideas are complicated and will result in even more restrictions and red tape.

And the idea of ‘voluntary co-financed payments’ for farmers in areas such as LFAs are worrying at a time when governments are seeking to cut spending.

The proposals are to be officially unveiled next month, and the debate will start there. Securing a CAP deal which suits every country in the EU27 will be the stuff of nightmares.

The next few years during which a deal will be hammered out will be the time when the UK’s devolved governments, Defra and all of our farming unions must come together to ensure UK farming plc gets the very best deal it can.

“Greening” is fine, but it’s ensuring a productive, profitable future for the UK’s farmers and the next generation which really matters.

The Defra honeymoon continues…but for how long?

Defra is still honeymooning, walking in a farmer wonderland. But how long will it last?

At last year’s Conservative Party conference Jim Paice, the then shadow farming minister, said if he got into Government he would to cut red-tape, tackle badgers, ditch unhelpful quangos and put British farming back on the Government agenda.

Eyes in the audience lit up, but the farmer next to me had a four word riposte, and while I can’t repeat the first word, the second three went: “Talk is cheap.”

Now Jim Paice is the Farming Minister he has a lot to deliver on, and he knows it more than anyone.

“We were out of power so long I got to make a lot of promises over the years,” said a rueful Mr Paice when he addressed the NFU fringe event at this year’s party conference in Birmingham.

But the positive atmosphere from a packed audience of over 100 people at the fringe event (admittedly mostly party faithful but also many farmers and industry representatives) was a good signal that Mr Paice has made rapid progress in a short space of time in power.

Food scams break a sacred trust with consumers

If you ordered lamb on a menu and it made a point that it was from a farm in Hampshire, that is exactly what you would expect.

And you would be surprised to discover it was actually from New Zealand.

But it is a discovery made recently – among others – by local authorities. And, more worryingly for Welsh farmers, they also discovered in one area that about half the lamb sold as Welsh didn’t actually come from Wales.

In a day and age when the provenance and authenticity of food is a major selling point, the temptation to “add value” by being less than truthful about its origins must be increasing.