The article goes on to ask who will replace them? Where will our food come from? Farmers to Action leader, Justin Rogers is threatening to be one of them and says that 'Agriculture needs to change. Either it changes, or I have to sell up and go to another country to do what I love'.
He and others are considering leaving the UK to farm in other countries due to the 'stagnation' of British agriculture and growing concern about Inheritance Tax changes. Frankly I think this is absurd, I can understand one or two small farmers moving to France, as they would be in a country that is far better connected with its farmers and of course they would be back under the EU farming umbrella as we all were pre-Brexit. France does also have Inheritance Tax which shows that it is not the big issue.
It is stated that 6365 farmers have left the industry since this Labour government came to power, the highest number since 2017, but this has little to do with the present government. The damage and the removal of the cheap food policy was carried out by the Conservatives once we left Europe, and there is worse to come as the continuing decline in payments bite harder. Fewer workers, higher costs and more regulation are pursued by this government and will not help that's for sure, but it's the lack of succession and wafer thin or non-existent margins which are the real reason.
Is this a food security disaster? Of course not, as someone else will farm the land if it is productive, or it could be taken out of food production if of poor quality as many acres in Sussex and Surrey have been over the years with no effect to food production; all pony paddocks and ragwort! I have little sympathy with our political leaders who are not representing commercial, productive farming, enticing young blood into this exciting high tech: industry. Instead, they try to maintain the closed shop of high land prices and protect the status quo.
I have even less sympathy with protest leaders such as Justin Rogers the cofounder and chair of Farmer to Action, who was speaking at Reform UK Conference, moaning about red tape and bureaucracy putting him in the office for a further 20 hours a week. All this red tape was meant to disappear once we were out of Europe, but as he says we have more than ever; what a surprise!
He moans that grain prices are similar to the 1980s, but it matters not which country your farm is in, as grain prices are global and much the same for everyone. The smart guys had sold most of their grain on the futures market some time ago. Ho moans again about high input prices and says that as we operate to such high standards in the UK, we should be freed from all red tape as other countries don't have to. What twaddle.
No doubt he and his cohorts will be voting Reform in the next election, and I suspect so will many, many farmers who are being promised that there will be no inheritance tax, no net zero, no red tape, a Defra run by people who understand farming, and so on. This is another pitch from the same snake-oil salesman as we had before Brexit, when all would be so much better. Are farmers going to fall for the same lies again?
It will be interesting to see where this all goes over the coming months as more scrutiny is applied, answers will need to be forthcoming, and nonsense will be exposed. Farmers will no doubt be tempted by the promise of no IT and it will be interesting to see if the Conservatives offer the same, and if they do will it prompt a Government U-turn?
Interestingly, scientists have now admitted that the seas are not rising as fast as they predicted, as a study challenges UN predictions. Embarrassed scientists have had to admit that there are in fact three causes for rising sea levels, thermal expansion, where the same volume of water takes more room due to being warmer, the land sinking or rising under the sea, which can vary from one location to another and of course the melting of glaciers and ice sheets. Research by Bas Voortman, a Dutch coastal engineer, compared the IPPC figures with long-term local sea levels around the world.
His study suggests that the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPPC) which assumes a middle course between the best and worst-case scenarios is wrong. Voortman has found in his study based on tide-gauge records over 60 years, which measures the sea level relative to the land, that the UN is out by around 2mm per year.
The number of people in the UK who think the dangers of global warming have been exaggerated has jumped by around 50% in the past 4 years. One in four voters now believe that concerns about climate change are not as justified, as the cost of net-zero bites harder each year. Far fewer people are in favour of banning the sale of new petrol or diesel cars, and fewer still are prepared to pay higher gas bills in order to encourage the switch to electricity.
There has been plenty of time and warnings for scientists and government to reign back, this column has repeatedly warned that over-egging this pudding will in the end turn people against both politicians and scientists who have lost the plot on this. If our government does not come to its senses, they will see their votes go to Reform who are climate deniers, which is very different. Our government is seemingly failing at every turn, unable to fix the little things, and it is no surprise therefore that there is no confidence in them fixing the big issues. In the end people's pockets will come first.
Covering our farmland with solar panels, desecrating our landscape with wind turbines which they pay not to produce electricity much of the time, restricting commercial, productive agriculture, which is putting up the price of food, pushing farmers to look for a lower carbon way of producing food which will push up prices even more. This is madness, and no one knows exactly why we are following this new religion in the UK when our emissions are around 1% of global emissions.
Given that so many farmers and citizens believe that life in a different country would offer more to their families and children, this November budget needs to be radical. A government cannot afford to have its citizens and farmers lose confidence in the future. Business needs a boost, and the country needs a different approach. We need the Conservative Party to come forward with radical solutions which would put real pressure on our government and hold them to account. Currently, there is no opposition and that will not do. Farming will go on, but there will be real damage to communities and the rural economy if things don't change.