The Farming Future

Following my posting yesterday regarding the propaganda by the BBC of industrial agriculture, I was contacted by someone I know defending the BBC. While I accept that the broadcaster needs to provide balanced reporting and programming, but the programmes I was criticising were unashamedly bias.

In so many other aspects of life the media is much more questioning regarding what is done in our name. Be this by politicians or big business, but when it comes to food and farming there really does seem to be a lack questions asked. Personally I think that when it comes to industrial farming the media likes to see all the big machines and high tech kit and this blinds them to the effects of industrial farming.

Further, while farming of all scales needs to provide food for the nation and export, often the media fails to question what is really going on in agriculture. In this desire to see the high tech kit over the years when the media has reported on the growing of grains it has been the really big combines that get the attention. Yet to use these in Britain, many thousands of miles of hedgerow has been removed. As well as destroying habitat, the farmers and agricultural businesses also increase the level of soil erosion. This increases the need for petro chemical fertilisers just to maintain the fertility.

Equally arable farmers have grown more and more grains not because of need, in this country or even for export demand, but because of subsidies that rewards the largest farmers even more. Often resulting in a surpluses that has to be stored as there is no market for the wheat, or Barley or Oats. Yet because the varieties of wheat grown are not suitable for bread flour, the majority has been for the commodity market rather than wheat's and grains for human food.

While farming is a business and one that this nation needs, agriculture should never have been allowed to be owned by a few large companies. While there are always economies of scale, having a few mega businesses controlling large parts of the food production is never wise. Just following the example of the mega tonnes of wheat that British agri-industry produces, this industry is not producing human food but animal feed. Real farmers feed people not just generate profits by growing crops that are not needed.

This is one of the core problems with Farming, Agriculture and Horticulture at the moment. Measuring efficiency based just upon the profits generated is disguising just how inefficient the system has become. In Britain, the smallest farms, here called Small Holdings, generate six times more income per acre than do the large industrial farms. Also they grow the food that people (their customers) want. Further small holders do this with far less environmental impact than do larger farmers. Therefore the question in my mind is simply just how efficient is agriculture really?

Subsidies were needed to enable farmers to modernise following the second world war, here in Europe. This was effective as a starving Europe became one that was able to feed itself. But that was over sixty years ago, we face different challenges now. By retaining a system that was needed then, allowed the big business interests to take control of our food. By creating massive surplices of low value food commodities, enabled the major food processors to create the products that are of low nutritional value, known as junk food. Retailers like these as they are easy to sell when combined with cleaver marketing.

To use an example from another industry, the Oil and Coal industry spend one billion Dollars US each year to cast doubt on Climate Change. The food giants spend even more, ten times more, marketing products that they describe as food. Now as good food actually sells itself, why would they waste money marketing this stuff if it was good nutritional food?

While all businesses and industries are self serving and there priority is perpetuating what works for them, but food has to be regarded in a different way to electronics or any other manufacturing industry. For far to long the largest farmers, the major food processors and the major retailers have dictated what foods were available in the shops. Further as just selling the individual ingredients gains the food supply chain the least profit, there has been pressure on us as consumers to buy the heavily processed prepared foods. In business speak this is called value added products. That is not added value to us but to them. When you can find examples of chicken with added water, and with marketing nonsense saying to make it more succulent, the food industry and factory farming does not need promotion by the BBC.

Because of the need to feed an ever growing world population, the major agricultural businesses and interests are pressing for more of the same as well as all the practices that have already been shown to be seriously damaging the planet. Especially the new technologies that consumers have already rejected, like GMOs (Genetically Modified Organisms). And it is the way that sections of the media seem to uncritically accept the big business line on food and food production, that is most disturbing.

Had the media been doing their job back in the 1960s and 70s when animal protein was first added to cattle feed, and allowed to be added by changing the regulations, we would never have had the problem of BSE. Equally, had the media looked critically at the way that vegetables for Europe and North America is grown in water poor areas of the world, shipped here causing food shortages in the growing nations as well as reducing availability of water, some of the conflicts and development problems would have been reduced if not avoided.

There is not currently a shortage of food, but every night over one billion people go to sleep hungry. Over a fifth of the people on the planet are undernourished. Big businesses answer is to just push the junk food that is high in fat, high in salt, and low in nutritional value. But only for those that can pay. Equally these industrial scale farmers that farm massive areas of land may be growing export earning crops like soya in places like Brazil, but often the land was already supporting whole populations of subsistence farmers. But as they were not generating export dollars they are ignored and having their rights completely abused. Further, these people that are pushed off the land then end up being the people that form a drain upon the their nation.

There are no simple solutions to the food and farming crisis that a growing world population faces. However having the BBC pushing what is in effect the governments policy as though it is the only answer remains a shameful act of propaganda by the BBC.