French Farmers !! (1 Viewer)

[chaser]

Hence the need for Farming Companies that can follow market trends and multicrop. Small Farmers can't compete, so wont survive, but isn't that true of all businesses?

We live in a capitalist economy. Those that survive, provide what the market wants at the price it's prepared to pay.

Farmers are not a special case, and, neither were the Miners or the Car Makers, etc. etc. etc.

Not going to keep this up, but no amount of scale can produce something for one price and sell it for half as much.
What happens when someone wants to start a 1000 cow indoor farm there's hell up, protests, questions in the house, same with pig farms, joe public wants twee little animals about, but doesn't want to pay for it, if everything goes your way there will be no animals outside , no hedges and walls just acres of solar panels and windmills and houses and all your veg will come from the farms in Spain that you like so much, but then they won't be selling for peanuts they will have you over a barrel.

 

[mariner]

If we don't know how to manage our agricultural land, there are plenty of multinational companies willing to do it for us.

 

[chaser]

If we don't know how to manage our agricultural land, there are plenty of multinational companies willing to do it for us.

As I said wind farms , solar farms and houses

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[mariner]

As I said wind farms , solar farms and houses

Not true.

They can and do come in and Farm for profit, as you well know.

This wind and solar Farms nonsense, is just that, nonsense. Scaremongering, for the tree huggers.

 

[Paddywack]

If we don't know how to manage our agricultural land, there are plenty of multinational companies willing to do it for us.

Depends on your definition of the term "manage"?

 

[mariner]

Depends on your definition of the term "manage"?

I refer the Honorable Member to my previous post!

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[jumar]

http://murciatoday.com/spanish-meat...rench-farmers_26688-a.html?subject=&category=

This can't be right or admired though can it?

 

[Rugeley Tim]

Returned from France on Saturday after two weeks that I can only describe as painful! We have visited France many times over the years but have now decided that for the next couple of years at least that the 'militant French' can keep it, the journey out through Calais was frustrating but was overshadowed by the greedy French Farmers (who get more subsidies than any other country in the EU) desire to block every ferry port whenever they felt like it. More frustratingly was seeing the farmers and the Gendarmerie laughing and drinking coffee together whilst the entire road network was is turmoil.

The final straw for me was loosing the N/S wing mirror to a French 'white van man' who subsequently disappeared in the distance!!

Sorry but this former lover of all things French will not be spending another hard earned penny in France anytime in the future!!!

 

[sylvester1954]

Have you noticed what smart, newish and no doubt very expensive tractors they've got?

If you think they have 'smart, newish' tractors look around the UK again. John Deere have outsold /out leased every other tractor dealer in the UK over the past 10 years and there are far more new ones on the farm than ever. Apparently they have used very attractive packages that Ford, Massey etc just cant match.

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[JJ]

Sorry but this former lover of all things French will not be spending another hard earned penny in France

So was it "real" love and was it for "all" things French...

Maybe not?


JJ

 

[chaser]

Not true.

They can and do come in and Farm for profit, as you well know.

This wind and solar Farms nonsense, is just that, nonsense. Scaremongering, for the tree huggers.

No they can't, we are in the middle of the country and not 10 miles from me either way there is a dairy farm gone to solar about hundred acres and the other way a grain farm has gone same again hundred acres and next to it one that was all potatoes gone, they can't keep going at this rate before it makes a hole in the country.

 

[Microchip]

I really admire the French for their stance on the way of life they believe it should be, its a shame we cant do the same over here, government in the UK make whatever decisions they want and we all just go along with it.

Agree entirely, what a shame our farmers don't go and protest with their tractors outside all the supermarkets that are doing them out of business, I'd also drive one just to help out, as long as it is a John Deer 6580,
Keith..

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[Microchip]

No they can't, we are in the middle of the country and not 10 miles from me either way there is a dairy farm gone to solar about hundred acres and the other way a grain farm has gone same again hundred acres and next to it one that was all potatoes gone, they can't keep going at this rate before it makes a hole in the country.

And another large field of Rape is destined to be 6000......houses near Fareham in Hampshire. When green fields are gone there're gone for ever bl**dy disgusting.
Too many people in this country (migrants perhaps) causing the need for more "towns" to be built, when will it end....

Keith

 

[2657]

France is still a member of the EU the last I heard and the EU is a free trade zone and as far as I know that includes produce.

Lots of businesses suffer from competition from other, less well off, countries in the EU and if I remember correctly France was all in favour of expanding the EU to include many former Eastern Block countries.

The French government are again flouting EU rules in introducing back door subsidies to farmers and even this is not enough.

If my history serves me correctly in the 19th century we had corn laws in this country to protect wealthy farmers and the repeal of the corn laws was a major part of the Free Trade and reform movements. I am not saying that farmers are all wealthy but there are many that have made a tidy sum through various EU subsidies over the years

In Manchester we had the Free Trade Hall built on the site of the Peterloo massacre when our lords and masters decided that a peaceful meeting to protest at the Corn Laws should be broken up by a charge of the Dragoons with sabres.

There is undoubtedly a serious problem with farming throughout the EU and the power and influence of the supermarkets needs challenging but is reintroducing a form of protectionism the answer?

The produce being destroyed by these actions is produced in other member states of the EU who also depend on selling that produce in a free market.

The agricultural policy needs reforming and farmers need looking after, they produce food and surprisingly none of us can live without it but is vandalism the way forward?

By the way have you seen the prices on French markets or artisan producteurs? The produce may be good and look very pretty but I think most UK consumers would have a fit if asked to pay those prices

 

[Teuchter]

Very interesting debate - I visit France twice a year, each time for 3 or 4 weeks and Spain once a year for about 8 weeks and enjoy travelling in both and yes I have occasionally been inconvenienced by striking farmers/fishermen in France. However if either or both of those countries were to become large mechanised super efficient farms, grubbing up trees and hedges, employing few people and using vast amounts of chemical fertilizers, insecticides and weed killers in the name of "progress" then I do believe I would have to look for pastures new!
Amongst the downside of farming "efficiency" and supermarket competition are - the loss of jobs (not just of the workers & farmers but of all the other village facilities like small shops, hairdressers bars etc), including the loss of a sustainable lifestyle where small family farms are sold and rural depopulation continues unchecked - large towns & cities become over populated and outstrip the employment opportunities within them leading to mass unemployment and unrest particularly among the young.
Once thriving village communities become "ghost villages" with the houses now predominately 2nd homes for the wealthy, all to save one or two pence on a pint of milk!!
Not my cup of tea!!
It is time we woke up to the fact that a whole rural way of life is being destroyed in search of the supposed "holy grail" of ever cheaper mass produced food!!

Rant over

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[Deleted34567]

The Giants of commerism want us all to eat/drink/consume their idea of produce.
In the end they attempt to control us.
But the French.....
"Block em or burn em".... proper order too.

 

[paulel]

This is about inefficient Farmers, paid for out of our taxes. I have nothing against the rest of rural France.

If the Spanish can do it then so can the French, what makes them a special case?.

Spain still maintains it's rural traditions, without everyone else having to subsidise all their Farmers.

Spain uses thousands of immigrants who are paid VERY low wages.

 

[EssexBoy]

I'm an IT man so technology is a passion, but "food security" as they call it is a real worry for me. I don't think its something we should be gambling market forces on.

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[Ivory55]

I wonder what % of the average wage is spent on food today compared to 40 or 50 years ago . Then a turkey was only at Xmas and meat in % terms of wages seemed a lot more then today. All the time there is cheap food the government can keep wages lower.

 

[Barclaybasher]

road blocked out of Spain and Germany. blockade over cheap food imports .tractors rule ok!

One reason why I own a MH is that, whatever the cause for any delay, I can park up, make a cup of tea, cook a meal, use the toilet, watch a DVD, have a sleep............................. and move on when the 'problem' disappears............ if I want to