Last month,
I mentioned Riverford’s ‘Get fair about farming’ campaign, the petition for which got a hundred and plenty thousand signatures and a resulting debate in Parliement. From looking at
Wicked Leeks and talking to Guy, it feels as though it’s run into a bit of a brick wall. The fact that, even after the debate, the minister for Food, Farming & Fisheries, Mark Spencer, saw no need to make any changes to the GSCOP (grocery supply code of practise) says a lot. Most small farms aren’t dealing directly with supermarkets anyway (so aren’t included in the code) – meaning there will be little change to an already toothless beast. What Riverford and Sustain are unquestionably right about is that there are a large number (49%) of fruit and vegetable growers who have little confidence in their future, the majority of whom, site the conduct of supermarkets as being a significant contributor to their feelings of insecurity. If it wasn’t for the fact that French farmers are kicking off as well, I’d be suggesting producer coops as a way of enfranchising farmers to deal with the multiples on a fairer basis. I’m not sure why producers coops are so alien to the British farmers psyche but, given that, a few years ago, Private Eye was awash with stories of potato growers refusing to pay their levies to the AHDB (Agriculture and horticulture development board) maybe the fierce independence of the ‘stout as an oak tree’ British yeoman farmer is their own worst enemy.
We live in a strange old world where a combination of COVID, Cost of Living scares and Gaza/Ukraine, with global warming as a backdrop, seem to have come together to demotivate us all. Living in the moment seems to be the order of the day yet we expect farmers to go on working all hours in rain, wind and snow – for a pittance. The news is full of similar disquiet in Europe, where rather worryingly, it’s being jumped on by the far right (particularly in Holland and Germany), and India, but north or global south, left or right, it all boils down to a model, dominated by the multiples, where the end user has come to expect to pay less than the true value, and cost, of their food. Include executives bonuses and shareholder’s dividends and there isn’t much left for the farmer. Riverford and Sustain are suggesting investing in regional food hubs to ease the route from farm to market for small producers. I’m not sure how this might work but suspect, as with so many well meaning initiatives, that enthusiasm might dwindle when the funding runs out.
Down here, we’re incredibly lucky to have such close connections to suppliers as well as customers who find a way to prioritise good food. It’s a standing joke ‘chez Watson’ that, wherever we are, I can’t drive past a farm shop without having a look and I’m proud to say that I’ve never been in one, other than ours, where people actually appear to be doing their weekly grocery shop. I mentioned one a few months ago that sold forty types of artisan gin, about two varieties of vegetables and had a meat counter the size of a pocket handkerchief – and even that was empty. Back in the day, I had plans to open shops in Bristol, and all points east, but the problem or great thing (take your pick) is that, by definition, farm shops don’t travel. I found that out, to my cost, years ago during our disastrous venture in Sidmouth – only 35 miles away but it might as well have been another planet.
So what’s the answer? No one can question that Riverford Organics have done an amazing job but they only sell a few hundred lines, and, old romantic that I’m not, I’m a great believer in the tactile and social nature of food shopping that online retailing just can’t deliver. So it has to be more farm shops, in towns, maybe community driven and led – to provide the local vibe – dealing with a number of farms and producers. So it won’t be Ben’s Farm Shop in Bristol, but THE Bristol Farm Shop selling produce from local farms. I know I’m dreaming and clutching at straws but anything is better than Tesco and their fake farms.