support our farmers

[monkentage]

its paid for by capital flows. capital is finite so it cant go on forever, all other things being equal.

as they are not economic growth can cover this for a very long time.

but i just said this.

 

[zain]

I really feel the government should have intervined a long time ago, in the USA the supermarkets have to stock something like 30% products from small businesses.

In the UK it has just let supermarkets grow and grow, giving them huge powers over their suppliers and the farmers lose out.

 

[alexakasloth]

I'm sure the farmers will be fine in the long run, those pretentious middle class types have a habit of going down the little country food shop to buy rip off meat.

LOL. Meat from a decent butcher will be so much better than most supermarket packaged and nappied beef.

Oh, and this is not coming from a 'pretentious middle class type'.

 

[iraiguana]

Something needs to be done, supermarkets convince and peoples laziness is causing a larger effect.

The government should not be paying subsidies for the farms to be producing biofuels though, instead subsidise actual British food which will help more people in the uk. The argument with regard to importing food relies on the fact that we do not need to already, I believe we import something in the order of 50% of our food over a yearly period.

If we could reduce this by reducing biofuel subsidies to encourage the farming of foods instead would really help and everyone would like to buy the British goods at the end.

 

[PureAppleJuice]

LOL. Meat from a decent butcher will be so much better than most supermarket packaged and nappied beef.

Oh, and this is not coming from a 'pretentious middle class type'.

Oh don't get me wrong, good meat from butchers etc. can be amazing but some farm shops (certainly in my locality) seem to be targeting said population with high prices for meat that isn't much better than what you'd get from the supermarket.

 

[alexakasloth]

Oh don't get me wrong, good meat from butchers etc. can be amazing but some farm shops (certainly in my locality) seem to be targeting said population with high prices for meat that isn't much better than what you'd get from the supermarket.

Fair do's, I have encountered a butchers like that, who don't even sell their own sausages/bacon (it's prepacked from somewhere else), the rest of the meat is higher in price than the butchers I use but I don't think the quality is any higher. Maybe it's because his buisness is smaller that prices are higher, but that's just a guess.

 

[oli collett]

Oh don't get me wrong, good meat from butchers etc. can be amazing but some farm shops (certainly in my locality) seem to be targeting said population with high prices for meat that isn't much better than what you'd get from the supermarket.

Hmm, some might, imo the worst offenders are the "middle class" supermarkets. I went to waitrose for the first time the other day and the food there, in particular the meat, was shocking. The sirloin steak was some of the worst i'd seen (there was no marbeling whatsoever) and the only decent stuff was the rib eye which was £26.99/kilo!!! I paid less than that when i went to Jack O'Shea's (a vvvv good butcher in Knightsbridge) for some 6 week dry aged rib eye steak. Then there was some pre-packed gloucester old spot back bacon which had most of the fat trimmed off. What's the point in rare breed pork without the fat???

 

[Flukester]

my way of looking at this kind of thing is if british farmers can't compete with meat imported in then they are doing something wrong... is something is expensive for no real reason then noones gonna buy it.

i remember my ex insting we get our milk from milkman to 'support his job'. i explained you can get it cheaper from supermarket but she wasn't having any of it... turned out he was unreliable so as well as paying a fortune we never got what we ordered.

like expensive farmers, a milkman is a obsolete job that will die out....

competition in a free market economy is a VERY good thing... stuff that don't satisfy the consumer dies out to make way for things they want (ie - usually cheaper)


I'd never let personal feelings like 'feeling sorry for poor expensive brit farmer' change my buying habits... if they can't compete then they will have to find another job, brutal but it's the way business works so why should it be different for them.

 

[oli collett]

my way of looking at this kind of thing is if british farmers can't compete with meat imported in then they are doing something wrong... is something is expensive for no real reason then noones gonna buy it.

i remember my ex insting we get our milk from milkman to 'support his job'. i explained you can get it cheaper from supermarket but she wasn't having any of it... turned out he was unreliable so as well as paying a fortune we never got what we ordered.

like expensive farmers, a milkman is a obsolete job that will die out....

competition in a free market economy is a VERY good thing... stuff that don't satisfy the consumer dies out to make way for things they want (ie - usually cheaper)


I'd never get personal feelings like 'feeling sorry for poor expensive brit farmer' change my buying habits... if they can't compete then they will have to find another job, brutal but it's the way business works so why should it be different for them.

The "doing something wrong" argument is somewhat naiive. Look, for example, at how meat is produced in the countries where we import from. Do you think Brazil, Thailand and other such countries have the same kind of basic standards that they have over here for animal welfare? do you think they have the same living costs, health and safety legislation, regulation on feed/pesticides etc.?

 

[Flukester]

I don't think anything on supermarket shelves is gonna be so bad it's gonna kill us.. it still has to meet basic standards ?

If it's better quality and the consumer is willing to pay extra then brit farmers will survive fine, fair play to them. But maybe the market is not big enough for that to support all of them..

I do think good british beef does seem to taste better than cheaper stuff.. but I don't think I buy enough to warrant a whole country of brit farmers producing it which is why so many stuggle I guess

It's like electronics or cars etc etc... it's all the same, we couldn't compete on pricing so it went somewhere else. It's not a big problem though as our economy just props itself up with other manu industries or service industries. I'm cool with buying a jap TV or motorbike. Service industry seems the perfect way to be successul in a country full of hungry consumers wanting to buy anything.. on such a tiny island we are never gonna accel in things you need space for, like farming.