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You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/aug/13/farmers-protests-milk-prices-alarm-rural-economy
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| The angst over milk is about the future of our countryside | The angst over milk is about the future of our countryside |
| (7 days later) | |
| Were farmers on the march? Did cows troop through Tesco mooing in protest at the outrageous high prices being charged for milk, thus risking oversupply and a price bubble? I don’t recall it. That was back in 2006, when the farm-gate price of milk boomed from 18p a litre to 26p in 2008, and then to 32p by 2013, while feed prices fell and profits soared. When times are good, lobbies stay silent. | Were farmers on the march? Did cows troop through Tesco mooing in protest at the outrageous high prices being charged for milk, thus risking oversupply and a price bubble? I don’t recall it. That was back in 2006, when the farm-gate price of milk boomed from 18p a litre to 26p in 2008, and then to 32p by 2013, while feed prices fell and profits soared. When times are good, lobbies stay silent. |
| Milk is like oil and grain, a global commodity. In the last decade, and despite recession, China was buying large amounts of milk powder, Russia was importing and American cattle feed prices were plummeting. To prop up the market the European Union scrapped production quotas that had been introduced in the 1980s to sustain prices. Milk production let rip. Everyone made money. It was a classic upturn in the hog cycle. | Milk is like oil and grain, a global commodity. In the last decade, and despite recession, China was buying large amounts of milk powder, Russia was importing and American cattle feed prices were plummeting. To prop up the market the European Union scrapped production quotas that had been introduced in the 1980s to sustain prices. Milk production let rip. Everyone made money. It was a classic upturn in the hog cycle. |
| Now milk has flooded the market at the same time as the Russians stopped importing it because of sanctions, and the pound has strengthened. Prices have slumped by an average of 25% this year, to roughly where they were in 2011. Some dairies will now be uneconomic, but not the efficient ones. Yet farmers’ leaders talk of despair and “dire consequences for the rural economy”. The National Farmers Union’s Meurig Raymond speaks of “an industry in crisis. I have been farming 45 years and this is the worst I have known.” Where was he during a similar price collapse in 1995-2000? | |
| Related: Farming unions call for 'seismic change' in way food is sold in Britain | Related: Farming unions call for 'seismic change' in way food is sold in Britain |
| The NFU now demands ministerial intervention. It wants state regulation of milk contracts, EU credit subsidies, new labelling regulations and “fair prices” from supermarkets. It wants de facto renationalisation of milk supply, as happened during the war. It is not called a union for nothing. | The NFU now demands ministerial intervention. It wants state regulation of milk contracts, EU credit subsidies, new labelling regulations and “fair prices” from supermarkets. It wants de facto renationalisation of milk supply, as happened during the war. It is not called a union for nothing. |
| Dairy farming is a tough business and is not alone. Sheep farming, too, is going through a price collapse. It costs more to shear a sheep than the wool is worth, and lamb meat seems in decline. A recent edition of the BBC’s usually sensible Countryfile was given over to a long requiem for the British sheep. There was no mention of how much taxpayer cash is nibbling over upland Britain. Subsidy is a banned word at the corporation. | Dairy farming is a tough business and is not alone. Sheep farming, too, is going through a price collapse. It costs more to shear a sheep than the wool is worth, and lamb meat seems in decline. A recent edition of the BBC’s usually sensible Countryfile was given over to a long requiem for the British sheep. There was no mention of how much taxpayer cash is nibbling over upland Britain. Subsidy is a banned word at the corporation. |
| When I was a boy, foreign imports were wiping sheep from the Welsh hills. Soon the EU sheep meat premium and selective import quotas sent numbers soaring, turning the hills into ecological deserts. Efficient, unsubsidised New Zealanders reacted by slashing costs. The UK flock peaked at 45m in 1992, but is now down by a third. This year New Zealand exports to Britain soared by 25%, helped by a strong pound. The effect on upland economics is devastating. But the idea that quotas and subsidies help anyone in the long run is simply false. | When I was a boy, foreign imports were wiping sheep from the Welsh hills. Soon the EU sheep meat premium and selective import quotas sent numbers soaring, turning the hills into ecological deserts. Efficient, unsubsidised New Zealanders reacted by slashing costs. The UK flock peaked at 45m in 1992, but is now down by a third. This year New Zealand exports to Britain soared by 25%, helped by a strong pound. The effect on upland economics is devastating. But the idea that quotas and subsidies help anyone in the long run is simply false. |
| Anyone’s livelihood under stress is never pleasant. Farmers are no different from hoteliers, shopkeepers or, for that matter, journalists in facing tough times and hard choices. In fact, and largely through state support, farming has a far lower bankruptcy rate than tourism, retail and property. That farmers are peculiar in sharing their woes with the public may seem odd, but it is explained by the success such lobbying has had in the past. | Anyone’s livelihood under stress is never pleasant. Farmers are no different from hoteliers, shopkeepers or, for that matter, journalists in facing tough times and hard choices. In fact, and largely through state support, farming has a far lower bankruptcy rate than tourism, retail and property. That farmers are peculiar in sharing their woes with the public may seem odd, but it is explained by the success such lobbying has had in the past. |
| When the NFU accuses retailers of “devaluing fresh British food purely to get customers through the door”, Tory farming minister George Eustice does not retort that such is the nature of markets. He rushes to crisis meetings at the union’s bidding. The truth is that when Tories get their hands on big government, the free market is for the birds. | When the NFU accuses retailers of “devaluing fresh British food purely to get customers through the door”, Tory farming minister George Eustice does not retort that such is the nature of markets. He rushes to crisis meetings at the union’s bidding. The truth is that when Tories get their hands on big government, the free market is for the birds. |
| Today’s peaceful meadow is tomorrow’s toytown housing estate. No one has time for policy, only money. | Today’s peaceful meadow is tomorrow’s toytown housing estate. No one has time for policy, only money. |
| Farmers are on stronger ground in their alarm over the rural economy. The concept is in intellectual ruins. Metropolitan politics has condemned the countryside to a bloodstained battleground of planning deregulation, developer banditry, farm-subsidy chaos, tubercular badgers, wind turbines and fracking. Today’s peaceful meadow, alive with wildflowers and grazing cows, is tomorrow’s toy-town housing estate, caravan park or massed polytunnels. No one has time for policy, only money. | Farmers are on stronger ground in their alarm over the rural economy. The concept is in intellectual ruins. Metropolitan politics has condemned the countryside to a bloodstained battleground of planning deregulation, developer banditry, farm-subsidy chaos, tubercular badgers, wind turbines and fracking. Today’s peaceful meadow, alive with wildflowers and grazing cows, is tomorrow’s toy-town housing estate, caravan park or massed polytunnels. No one has time for policy, only money. |
| Any study of the future of world food production points in one direction. Animals roaming free and consuming quantities of grass and water are doomed. Meat on the hoof can only go the way of battery chickens – which is indoors. That is if they survive the advent of protein spinning and other forms of cultured meat. Likewise, arable products will no longer occupy precious land but move to the hydroponic walls and shelves of food factories. If they can grow lettuce in a space station, they can grow cabbages in a car plant. | Any study of the future of world food production points in one direction. Animals roaming free and consuming quantities of grass and water are doomed. Meat on the hoof can only go the way of battery chickens – which is indoors. That is if they survive the advent of protein spinning and other forms of cultured meat. Likewise, arable products will no longer occupy precious land but move to the hydroponic walls and shelves of food factories. If they can grow lettuce in a space station, they can grow cabbages in a car plant. |
| Such changes may take decades to hit the stock farmers of the antipodes or the American midwest, let alone the fertile prairies of eastern Europe. But the genteel farmers of the EU will become like German ice wine-makers or Japan’s Kobe cowmen, specialists catering to niche “farmers’ markets”. | Such changes may take decades to hit the stock farmers of the antipodes or the American midwest, let alone the fertile prairies of eastern Europe. But the genteel farmers of the EU will become like German ice wine-makers or Japan’s Kobe cowmen, specialists catering to niche “farmers’ markets”. |
| This will transform the concept of countryside beyond recognition. The fate of lowland Britain, if current politics is any guide, is that of America’s New Jersey or Connecticut. It is a continuous, lightly forested sprawl of gated residential development. | This will transform the concept of countryside beyond recognition. The fate of lowland Britain, if current politics is any guide, is that of America’s New Jersey or Connecticut. It is a continuous, lightly forested sprawl of gated residential development. |
| Related: Milk prices, morality and market mechanisms | Letters | Related: Milk prices, morality and market mechanisms | Letters |
| Most Britons unquestionably do not want this. The countryside and its champions (such as the National Trust) are ranked as most treasured in opinion polls, along with the royal family and Shakespeare. Hills, coasts, green belts and areas of natural beauty are fiercely defended, as are rural villages, historic towns and cathedral cities. It is the bits in between that are challenged, the 70% of Britain’s land area that remains at the mercy of that wayward tyrant, agricultural economics. | Most Britons unquestionably do not want this. The countryside and its champions (such as the National Trust) are ranked as most treasured in opinion polls, along with the royal family and Shakespeare. Hills, coasts, green belts and areas of natural beauty are fiercely defended, as are rural villages, historic towns and cathedral cities. It is the bits in between that are challenged, the 70% of Britain’s land area that remains at the mercy of that wayward tyrant, agricultural economics. |
| If this landscape is to retain its rural character in anything like the form the public claims to want – having spent billions on it over half a century – its future husbandry must somehow be planned. This can’t ignore the farming community which, for all its faults, knows the countryside best. | If this landscape is to retain its rural character in anything like the form the public claims to want – having spent billions on it over half a century – its future husbandry must somehow be planned. This can’t ignore the farming community which, for all its faults, knows the countryside best. |
| Clear decisions need taking on how much and which land should stay rural, and which can be sacrificed to building, and on the role of residual farming in that process. Such policy must cover the protection of landscape beauty, of treasured views, open space and woodland; the future of the countryside for recreation and leisure. It’s a large chunk of what most Britons enjoy and value in their environment. | Clear decisions need taking on how much and which land should stay rural, and which can be sacrificed to building, and on the role of residual farming in that process. Such policy must cover the protection of landscape beauty, of treasured views, open space and woodland; the future of the countryside for recreation and leisure. It’s a large chunk of what most Britons enjoy and value in their environment. |
| This is what the emotion surrounding the fate of British dairying is about. Does anyone in government understand? I think not. | This is what the emotion surrounding the fate of British dairying is about. Does anyone in government understand? I think not. |