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Lucysgirl · 06-04-2016, 01:58

Hi again Margaret - this post is about the absurd butter mountain that you mentioned and where the Policy procedures were so lax that we had goodness knows how many rogues laughing all the way to the bank. They found it easy to buy cheap butter which they obtained from the despatch outwards gate, they then drove their lorries to Ireland and then back into mainland Europe where they got paid the going retail price from the goods inward office.

To be fair, we did have a similar agricultural policy that began in WWII and I know it was still in place when I married in '64 but I don't know if it changed prior to us joining the EU. I'm from the flat lands of the eastern coast which was used for crops (grain and veggies) with a field here and there where cattle and sheep grazed. From conversations with farmers in the local watering holes:: the government agent would come round, they'd discuss what crops would be wanted, they'd be sown - I know after the war in late 1950s, a farmer walked into the bar and said the inspector had been and told him not to pick his bumper crop of potatoes but to turn the land over, at the time I was shocked but that's how our governments controlled the prices in the shops - the farmer still got paid by the government for not producing his potatoes, in other words even if the crops failed that year due to bad weather the farmers could still expect a handout from the government - obviously what could happen if the nation were at war again meant buying from abroad and having our merchant shipping sunk. In the late 1950s I was shown around one of the port warehouses which could hold 4,000 cattle at a time for export, it seemed to me at the time that we were doing quite well if that's how we brought in the money.

All that changed when we joined the Market and those subsidies stopped.

I didn't like the Common Market ag.policy at all although knowing the hardship of the last war, I understood the reasoning behind having a few weeks supply in the form of the mountains of food and drink. What I didn't agree with was the policy of getting rid of the small farmers. Not that France toed the line, of course.

--

Turning to more modern times and the new Farming Subsidies - the old ways of shopping have gone and we mainly use the supermarkets, who resort to bullying tactics to get the deals they want and quite often don't bother to settle their bills and that's not just with the British suppliers but also their foreign suppliers. We probably eat more foreign grown rice & veggies than spuds and sprouts these days so we currently don't need as much farmland, unless we plan for a burgeoning population when it will come back into use again. It's a debatable subject of whethr or not to give handouts and if so how much because we know farmers take in holiday makers, they also have an income from other ideas they've put into practice.

You said: Take for instance the Common Agricultural Policy. Farmers were paid not to cultivate their fields. Not to produce foodstuffs.
If you remember we'd had thousands of cattle shot, the sheep had caught "blue tongue", up in Northumbria pigs were dying of disease that was brought into the country by a government certified pig swill farm and there were reports of farmers so deep in debt that they were committing suicide. They needed help and I think I'm right in saying that Tony Blair managed to get money to pay the farmers to be custodians of the land and money was given to plant trees and rebuild non maintained walls/hedges plus they were to leave land to nature in order that bees, etc. would survive and increase. Smaller farms haven't survived - they're now in land banks owned by supermarkets, etc.and I hope they're not getting any of the money!!!

"This so called trading partnership has never had equality at its heart. - you can say that again. We've had to fight for what little we get.

P.S. This isn't about the Common Market but I was curious about the number of suicides and found this article, which shows it's happening elsewhere.

"In the U.S. the rate of farmer suicides is just under two times that of the general population. In the U.K. one farmer a week commits suicide. In China, farmers are killing themselves daily to protest the government taking over their prime agricultural lands for urbanization. In France, a farmer dies by suicide every two days. Australia reports one farmer suicides every four days. India yearly reports more than 17,627 farmer suicides. — Newsweek 2014"

06-04-2016, 01:58	#180
Lucysgirl Registered User Join Date: Apr 2011 Location: Baxenden Posts: 293 Liked: 39 times Rep Power: 0	Re: Referendum is a load of crap.!! Hi again Margaret - this post is about the absurd butter mountain that you mentioned and where the Policy procedures were so lax that we had goodness knows how many rogues laughing all the way to the bank. They found it easy to buy cheap butter which they obtained from the despatch outwards gate, they then drove their lorries to Ireland and then back into mainland Europe where they got paid the going retail price from the goods inward office. To be fair, we did have a similar agricultural policy that began in WWII and I know it was still in place when I married in '64 but I don't know if it changed prior to us joining the EU. I'm from the flat lands of the eastern coast which was used for crops (grain and veggies) with a field here and there where cattle and sheep grazed. From conversations with farmers in the local watering holes:: the government agent would come round, they'd discuss what crops would be wanted, they'd be sown - I know after the war in late 1950s, a farmer walked into the bar and said the inspector had been and told him not to pick his bumper crop of potatoes but to turn the land over, at the time I was shocked but that's how our governments controlled the prices in the shops - the farmer still got paid by the government for not producing his potatoes, in other words even if the crops failed that year due to bad weather the farmers could still expect a handout from the government - obviously what could happen if the nation were at war again meant buying from abroad and having our merchant shipping sunk. In the late 1950s I was shown around one of the port warehouses which could hold 4,000 cattle at a time for export, it seemed to me at the time that we were doing quite well if that's how we brought in the money. All that changed when we joined the Market and those subsidies stopped. I didn't like the Common Market ag.policy at all although knowing the hardship of the last war, I understood the reasoning behind having a few weeks supply in the form of the mountains of food and drink. What I didn't agree with was the policy of getting rid of the small farmers. Not that France toed the line, of course. -- Turning to more modern times and the new Farming Subsidies - the old ways of shopping have gone and we mainly use the supermarkets, who resort to bullying tactics to get the deals they want and quite often don't bother to settle their bills and that's not just with the British suppliers but also their foreign suppliers. We probably eat more foreign grown rice & veggies than spuds and sprouts these days so we currently don't need as much farmland, unless we plan for a burgeoning population when it will come back into use again. It's a debatable subject of whethr or not to give handouts and if so how much because we know farmers take in holiday makers, they also have an income from other ideas they've put into practice. You said: Take for instance the Common Agricultural Policy. Farmers were paid not to cultivate their fields. Not to produce foodstuffs. If you remember we'd had thousands of cattle shot, the sheep had caught "blue tongue", up in Northumbria pigs were dying of disease that was brought into the country by a government certified pig swill farm and there were reports of farmers so deep in debt that they were committing suicide. They needed help and I think I'm right in saying that Tony Blair managed to get money to pay the farmers to be custodians of the land and money was given to plant trees and rebuild non maintained walls/hedges plus they were to leave land to nature in order that bees, etc. would survive and increase. Smaller farms haven't survived - they're now in land banks owned by supermarkets, etc.and I hope they're not getting any of the money!!! "This so called trading partnership has never had equality at its heart. - you can say that again. We've had to fight for what little we get. P.S. This isn't about the Common Market but I was curious about the number of suicides and found this article, which shows it's happening elsewhere. "In the U.S. the rate of farmer suicides is just under two times that of the general population. In the U.K. one farmer a week commits suicide. In China, farmers are killing themselves daily to protest the government taking over their prime agricultural lands for urbanization. In France, a farmer dies by suicide every two days. Australia reports one farmer suicides every four days. India yearly reports more than 17,627 farmer suicides. — Newsweek 2014"