Foot and Mouth

[brionon]

Wot a surprise !! What do they call it-'The Farming Industry' ? The moment they started to call Farming an Industry they had already lost the way.

[Reverandfunk]

is that the same "industry" that is heavily subsidised and some farmers paid not to grow anything?

How much does the common agricultural policy cost each year?

if it were an industry is would have to adhere to market forces namely no-one wants to buy yr over priced product

[jake-the-peg]

And this has got what exactly to do with reseach labs with leaky pipes?

[Goodsoulette]

Oh yeah thats exactly right farmers sit around living the life of luxury on E.U. subsidies.

[Reverandfunk]

Soulette - Why should farmers get any form of subsidy?

I work for myself and do I get a subsidy when times are hard or i'm making something that no-one wants?

Errrr that would be a no.

[Goodsoulette]

Do you pay for everything to do your job. Could one person doing your job being ill prevent you from doing yours and meaning you go with out pay for months and months.

I would prefer to eat local produce where I know the subsidy contributes towards good farming practices than having say my meat imported from south america.

Actually know. Sod it, lets get rid of all the farms eat from everywhere but here and build on all the countryside.

[jake-the-peg]

Do you answer your own questions to prevent people disagreeing with you Reverend?

That'd be a yes!

[jno]

what choice do they have? As part of the great Tesco/Asda/Sainsbury food chain, they either produce food in an industrial fashion or the big buyers will ignore them.

[jake-the-peg]

It occurs to me that with the supermarkets controlling the prices paid to farmers and the farmers reciving subsidies what is in fact happening is that in fact the subsidies are going to the supermarkets.

If the level of subsidies were to go up Tesco and the others would drop the price and help themselves.

Or is that too simplistic?

[Goodsoulette]

Spoke to my mum this evening and oh my god, you'll never believe how much the subsidy they get is..... its huge...you might fall off your seat.

Now this year they had a reactor on a cow for tb. So no trading for 3 months. Cow has autopsy and had no signs of the disease. So they lost 2 cows and could trade for 3 months. No money. As soon as that was up... the foot and mouth restrictions happened. Since those and the new restriction, because of the limited restrictions they have still not been able to trade. This is now running into about 6 months of no money for them. So its just as well they get a thousand pound subsidy every YEAR. Thats about fair compensation for crappy TB tests that didn't work and a foot and mouth outbreak 200 miles away.

Subsidies are common place for agriculture in most countries cos we need to eat.

[Reverandfunk]

Jake - I answered it because it is right.

Why should we subsidise any industry?

I lost a booking 2 weeks ago because of a third party which I could do nothing about do I get compensated no I go out and get other work.

Do manufacturing companies get subsidised because of cheap foreign imports?

Do companies get subsidised because they are ineffiecient compared to their competitors?

[Goodsoulette]

Tin of beans...9p
loaf of bread....21p
cornflakes....40 p
They get subsidised so they can continue to provide you with food you can afford. Farmers are still expected to pay high taxes, yet produce food cheaper than ever, in relation to values of other things. The people are winning here are the supermarkets, big dairies and other food buyers.

There will be a small amount of huuuuge farms profiting from the subsidies. I read somewhere "The way to stop this is not to stop government payments that make up the shortfall between what farmers need in order to make the present meet the future, but to stop farms from getting away from manageable unit size."

The reason they are paid not to plant crops is to preserve the land for future generations.... surely this a good thing.

Would you really be in your industry if you couldn't sell your products for what it cost you???

From my experience, the subsidies amount to nothing to most farmers and they tend to moan that most of the funding goes to the rest of Europe and they dont get as much here.

[horsestache1]

Rev, Do you work 14-16 hours a day 365 days a year just to eek out a living.

I'll answer my question too, No No No or you would'nt be on here so much!

Foot an mouth is NOT the farmers fault on this occasion, and they should be compensated for a stupid error on the govenrments behalf.

[brionon]

They should be compensate ,yes. But it won't be the Government that pays-it'll be you !!

[Goodsoulette]

They aren't compensated though, brionon. Unless they have stock slaughtered, that is the only way. This is why there is a total ban on moving stock at the moment so no compensation has to be paid. They wont get anymore than each animal is worth and probably a considerable amount less. So stop worrying about it, you wont lose a penny more.

[horsestache1]

Brionon, We, all of us will have to pay for this governments c*ck up, but I would rather my taxes went to the farmers, than benifit spongers, sending thugs on holiday (how nice), subsidising council accommodation for both of the above as well as illegal immigrants, I could go on and on and on...............

[brionon]

Goudsoulette;I ain't worryin' frien',Cos I don't live there anymore.

[Goodsoulette]

and where do you live? because most countries subsidise farmers!

[brionon]

But I won't lose a penny more 'cos I use the Euro. And we don't have F+M in Italy and Belgium where I live.

[Goodsoulette]

lol, I dont get it. That makes no sense, you live in europe........ do you not have to pay taxes? Farming is definitely heavily subsidised in Italy. That's not to say Italians pay more towards farming than us because I believe the money is dished out via the Eu.