• You need to be a registered member of Barbel Fishing World to post on these forums. Some of the forums are hidden from non-members. Please refer to the instructions on the ‘Register’ page for details of how to join the new incarnation of BFW...

The health of our rivers - or not!

Rhys Perry said:
Not quite what I thought I'd read, but I knew I'd read something to that effect. What you make of this article Joe/Rich?

Why Britain's barren uplands have farming subsidies to blame | George Monbiot | Environment | The Guardian
Click to expand...

Since that article was written, the current Govt. has opted to increase direct subsidy payments to upland farms with no additional conditions attached. A great many upland farms lose money on livestock production, in some areas it seems upland livestock production is unsustainable both environmentally and economically.

Mark Avery raises some interesting questions here:
Unprofitable farming in the uplands - Mark AveryMark Avery

As does George Monbiot in this thought-provoking lecture at the Oxford Farming Conference:
Robbing the Poor to Give to the Rich | George Monbiot
 
That's a pretty damning assessment of farm subsidies there Joe, they're more ridiculous than I ever imagined!
More people need to watch this sort of stuff.
 
Got no problem with that Rich and no problem with subsidies where needed, but if that lecture is anything to go buy most are paid out to what are essentially already wealthy land barons. Either that or propping up unprofitable and unworkable upland farms.
 
If the upland farms were not managed then the general public would not care for the result..... believe me. There is a cost to that and sheep do not cover it.
 
The UN have released a statement saying that we have 15 Years Until World Faces Catastrophic Water Shortage Crisis..
 
What result would that be then? Surely if they're subsidised to manage unworkable farms we can repopulate these uplands with forest and they can be subsidised to manage these instead?
 
It takes 10 kg of feed to recover 1 kg of meat for human consumption, at the other scale 9kg if insects are produced as food for humans with the same 10kg of feed.

Believe me that there is a move for insects to provide the protein that is needed to supply enough for the ever expanding human population, this method of production is so cheaper and less polluting. I understand 80% of the world population eat insects , and so do you and I but on a lesser scale of approx 500 gms per year that is found in ordinary foods we buy from supermarkets.

Big Mac Locust Burger with Flies anyone :)
 
if we only imported meat from countries that had to maintain the same animal husbandry standards as out farmers, our farmers would be able to compete and not require subsidies. Unfortunately it would mean dearer meat but then if they took all the meat brokers out of the equation so it went farm, abattoir,shop rather than farm,abattoir, meat broker , meat broker,meat broker etc shop, it would be cheaper.
 
Arthur.C.Clarke covered all of this in the 'Space Odyssey' series...processed mould grown on recycled human waste, wonderfully efficient system. Do you lot not read science fiction? :D

Cheers, Dave.
 
Robert, SOME! supermarkets did make this happen through animal passports and breeders clubs, unfortunately SOME! supermarkets are only profit orientated and have chosen to go down the worldwide resourcing thus undoing all the careful care of protecting the public,
the actual chain of obtaining animals, slaugtering them, butchering them, proessing and packaging them and then snding the products to various distribution depots doesn,t work efficiently long term if parts of the chain are missing thus increases cost not reduces it long term mate,
as for hill farmers they do better than most think they do because of various subsidies and the hill land would be only useful for forestry if not farmed,
look at any farmers transport wealthy or not and you,ll find they,re all expensive ones, supmarket chains tell the meat producers how much they will pay not the producers demanding how much they will charge, somewhere between negotiations a price is reached, my company earns much less per unit than it did 12 years ago, try going without a pay rise for 14 years and see if you find it tolerable to continue successfully, cheaper than that, i dont think so i know so:)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top