Anti-farming prejudice destroying industry

DEAR Editor, I confess to being puzzled at the prejudice held against both farmers and farming in this country.

I have observed that car manufacturers and supermarkets are openly encouraged in the UK, and the opening of a new supermarket or industrial plant is often applauded in local newspapers up and down the country as being good for employment and for the local community.

Conversely, the farming industry is facing a great many problems – the milk price fiasco being the most recent – yet farmers are treated with contempt by those who encourage the growth of supermarkets and manufacturers.

Hundreds of dairy farmers have been put out of business by the milk price debacle, but no action was taken until after the NFU who, unlike other unions in the past, avoided taking militant action and put its case to the supermarkets.

But this is only one instance of farmers being driven to the ground by those in power.

The compulsory purchase of land for motorways saw many farms shut down simply because they were on land earmarked for our now congested motorway network.

The controversy over GM food has seen farmers being pressured by both sides of the debate, and businesses choosing to import products readily available from British farms has seen many more farms forced to close down.

I have met one farmer whose dairy farm was almost driven to closure when the dairy he supplied milk to chose to import all of its milk from Europe. This anti-farming prejudice is also prevalent in the job centres, where everyone who looks for work is automatically recommended for supermarkets.

I say, what about those of us who prefer to work the land?

What about those of us who prefer to tend fields of barley over tins of baked beans?

I’d rather work on a smallholding than in a supermarket any day of the week, but the powers that be seem reluctant to encourage those who either want to go into farming or are in farming already.

But this can not go on. Manufacturing and supermarkets can not sustain a nation indefinitely, and our farmers need our support now more than they ever have before.

Andrew Norris, Acocks Green, Birmingham