I am not a lone wolf in the wilderness

MY case has been discussed yet again, I hear, at NFU council and it came as no surprise to me to learn that it wasn’t in the most flattering of terms. It never is.

So am I pursuing a one-man vendetta against the farming establishment? Sorry to disappoint those who claim I am but I am not. All I am doing is acting as a conduit for those thousands of farmers who feel the establishment is woefully out of touch and being run by people who are better at sitting on committees than actually farming – and who, equally, misguidedly believe that organisations such as Red Tractor and the AHDB are doing a good job.

I have indeed been unstinting in my criticism of both because I strongly believe that asking farmers to support either is like asking them to throw money down a well – and in case anyone hadn’t noticed money is not that plentiful at the moment.

Anyway since nowadays you aren’t allowed to voice any kind of opinion without the authority of research to back it up, I thought I would conduct some and accordingly I enlisted the support of six farming couples in various parts of the country and equipped them with clipboards.

I sent the wives round to their nearest supermarket to survey at least 30 shoppers. They had two questions to ask: whether people knew what the Red Tractor logo reptheir resented and whether it influenced their buying decisions. The responses were highly revealing. No fewer than 86% said they had no idea what the logo stood for and all but one said their buying decisions were dictated by price. Just one said she chose Red Tractor products because it meant farmers had to adhere to some standards.

I detailed the husbands to visit local livestock market and to question a similar number of farmers about the AHDB: what was their opinion of it and did it offer value for money?

Ninety-five per cent of those questioned said it wasn’t worth bothering with. And the distilled essence of their opinions was that it was being run by people who were very good at sitting on their hands and talking but were totally incapable of delivering anything. Not one interviewee could demonstrate deriving any benefit from the compulsory levy and to a man the AHDB was dismissed as an organisation which relieved farmers of their money and delivered nothing in return. The most printable of the more outspoken comments was that it was “run by a bunch of crooks”.

I cannot condone that remark, of course. I do not accept that there has ever been evidence of dishonesty tainting the affairs of the AHDB. But it has certainly in my view – and that of many others, obviously – reached rarely attained levels of incompetence and inefficiency while setting new standards for the wasteful spending of other people’s money.

So I must correct those in the NFU who have written me off as a lone voice crying in the wilderness. Get out of the committee rooms and go out and speak to a few proper farmers and you will discover that I am far from being alone.

Asking farmers to support either is like asking them to throw money down a well