Closing gap between farmer and consumer

Farmers will be looking back on a troublesome 12 months as the end of the financial year looms, says Conservative MP for Bridgwater and West Somerset Ian Liddell-Grainger

THE end of the financial year is coming up and will provide the annual day of reckoning for farmers and their accountants.

It would be gratifying to be able to look back on a trouble-free year for once, but the last 12 months have brought the usual crop of challenges. Who can forget the scorching summer, the murderously high prices it led to and the way so many farmers had to dig into winter reserves – or sell off livestock for lack of any?

But since it is now impossible to use historical data to forecast weather patterns, it would be prudent to expect the worst, accept that summer heatwaves will become the norm and start planning accordingly.

The danger, of course, is that the weather will shift to a pattern of more extremes – as has been widely predicted by climatologists – faster than farmers can adapt, which is why I believe planning should start now as a matter of urgency.

Not that that is the only reason why I see a need for changes in the way we farm the land. I was learning recently about the continuing and rather alarming rate at which butcher’s shops are closing across the country, with one of the factors – as explained to me – the increase in the number of farmers adopting directselling as a way of increasing their margins and staying in business.

Although I should hate to see us lose any more butcher’s shops I do detect a positive trend here because it shows farmers are seizing the initiative, working out what needs to be done and changing the way they do business.

And in my book anything which brings farmer and consumer closer together has to be welcomed. For far too long the gap between the two has been widening, leading not only to huge levels of public ignorance about how farming works but equally about food and how it is produced – hence the depressing regularity of surveys showing children not realising cheese is made from milk or that eggs emerge from the back end of a chicken. All this leaves people sus- ceptible to being influenced by the black propaganda of the vegans and other anti-farmer groups.

Direct selling isn’t for everyone of course. But building closer relationships with the consumer is something all farmers can work at, whether by turning their hands to b and b, or running classes in traditional skills such as hedge-laying or even offering farm walks. This last suggestion touches on the matter of public access. Particularly in the South West, farmers manage hundreds of square miles of stunningly beautiful countryside – countryside which the CROW legislation encouraged people to go out and enjoy responsibly.

Unfortunately that last word is often overlooked. But I believe excel- lent opportunities are starting to emerge as the Government looks for ‘environmental goods’ in return for farm support for farmers to take the lead, invite people to share the beauty of their landscapes with them and in the process to drive home the message that countryside access is far more than carte blanche to let one’s dogs run loose to kill sheep.

Building closer relationships with the consumer is something all farmers can work at, like running classes in traditional skills such as hedge-laying