Farmers make more profit from subsidies than they do from farming. The average small farm relies on subsidies to make up 78% of their total profits. Cereal farmers in this country operate at a loss before subsidy. I know a few farmers around here and they’re expecting the CAP subsidies to remain in place ad infinitum, paid for by the U.K. Govt. without them, they’re ****ed.
Yes, he was wrong. Have you ever been to France brb? I have many times, and sorry to be a smart arse but I spent 2 summers as a seasonal worker picking fruit in France - cherries and peaches in French Catalunia, and grapes in Bergerac and Bordeaux. They use the communal agricultural system there, where small farmers pool their resources for sale at a fixed price. The EU’s Common Agricultural Policy ensures they all receive a decent price for their produce, and in this way the huge regional variety of local produce - as well as local culture, dialect etc, Is preserved. At least that’s how it was in the 80s. Supermarket culture, on the USA/U.K. model has eroded that since; but the French are ferocious defenders of local and regional culture, so I doubt it’ll ever completely disappeared. If English culture is under threat from anywhere btw, it’s America. But only because we all want to be American - no one is forcing us to watch their movies, listen to their music, or imitate their fashions. It’s our choice; either way, the E.U. is not the threat to our British way of lifd, far from it.
It’s a bad habit of mine. I don’t actually think that, honest. There’s loads of things I know **** all about, and I am willing to be educated. But I do get annoyed by deliberate displays of ignorance, and brb presses all my buttons on that one. The referendum brought out the worst in me; our country’s future is being sacrificed on the altar of “The Will of the People” - and most of “The People” are ****ing idiots. I may be an idiot myself. Often am actually. Not on @brb ’s scale though, he is the crown prince of idiots.
Because their costs often out weigh the returns they get from the crops. The need for scale has been largely driven by the need to reduce cost. A combine costs the same whether you have a 1000 or 10,000 acres.
But surely that cost is forced down by mass production ie the large land owners. Don't get me wrong, i know that benefits the consumer but i remember a similar argument over lamb, where a farmer argued his cost was forced down, but in fact it is not passed onto the consumer, it goes into the profits and pockets of Mr Sainsbury - his argument not mine.
I'm always happy to wear the T-Shirt. I will always give a contrary view, whether it annoys people or not. Every time someone calls me thick i will argue it even more. Just because the majority in some cases might see it different to me, don't make me wrong. Take parliament, they've all got a better view than May, does that make her wrong, maybe but at least she had the bolloxs to confront it head on being the minority of one, rather than run away like a coward. And when truth is known, none of them have a better solution.
