Research has found that farmers’ income has been stagnant since the 1970s, despite the improvements in productivity and a decrease in the workforce.
This was driven by the low prices of agricultural products; Since the UK has become more dependent on imports, supermarkets have seized grocery shopping, and families eat more super treatment foods, According to the report of the Food and Agriculture Committee and the countryside.
Over the past five years, the average farmer has been 32,272 pounds. After adjusting inflation, this is the same level as in the mid -seventies. During the same period, the economy grew and real features rose in other sectors.
The farmers were in the United Kingdom Recently protest After the government came Inheritance On their origins. They argue that the small income they achieve from their farms may not be sufficient to pay the fees, which means that their children will have to sell the land. This change coincided with more than 18 months at all, as well as the end of the European Union agricultural benefits.
The report also warns that “severe unification” of the supply chain in products such as animal feeding, fertilizers and tractors is dominated by a few very large companies, which means that “farmers have little strength and the conflict of small companies, and the largest companies have a strong impact on government policy, all of which close the diet in weakness.”
The authors said: “The country’s dependence on the shrinkage of the large number of farms and a handful of major companies is a threat to food security and flexibility in a world suffering from the effects of unstable climate and geopolitical.”
The recommendations mentioned in the report include that the government should set basic criteria in commercial deals on the environment and health and the welfare of animals associated with local agriculture, which means prohibiting the resulting food imports to a lower level than legal in the United Kingdom. It also recommends the creation of the food market regulator with the general value of transforming and targeting agricultural spending towards priority sectors such as fruits, vegetables and legumes.
Environment Minister, Steve Reed, He said Farmers are not salaries enough for what they are doing and pledged to publish a 25 -year agricultural plan that addresses these issues. He said that the plan will be about “the justice of the supply chain”, which means that farmers will somewhat pay by those who sell their products.
The report says that food prices have decreased with the stagnation of farmers ’income, under the pretext:” This cheap version is expensive. The real price is paid in people’s health, in agricultural societies, by our wild lives, air and waterways, and in Britain’s ability to feed itself in the long run. “
The report also puts how to unify the supply chain; For example, four sticking companies provide about 70 % of fresh beef in supermarkets. Supermarkets also buys its own milk from only two dairy treatment, buying about 40 % of a liter of 15 billion produced by farmers in the UK.
In addition, more than half of the country’s livestock and sheep companies are provided by four companies, while the National Fertilizer Market is dominated by three main companies, and in 2023, 80 % of the 11,000 sale of brands that belong to three major manufacturers. This gives farmers less shopping and bargaining for a better price.
