The need for a collaborative approach to the UK Farming and Food Security Problem

Watching the stories unfold around UK Farming and Food Security is as frustrating as it is concerning for these following significant reasons:

The Government isn’t going to change course on its overall relationship with UK Farms and Farming. Even if some media friendly concessions are made. Much like two of the UK Supermarket chains this week making public announcements that they support our Farmers over the Inheritance Tax issue, whilst at the same time taking no action to create genuine change that would help Farmers to receive an income that reflects the role that they have as a Key player in the Food Chain.
Farmers are committed to ‘changing unchangeable minds’. Because of the way that the Agricultural Marketplace and the systems feeding in and out of it have been deliberately manipulated over a period exceeding 50 years.
There is an industry-wide dependency upon subsidies and contract production/trading arrangements that effectively surrendered the control of UK Farms and Farming to the establishment (primarily EU ‘modelling’) and big business, which has resulted in a cultural deprogramming of some of the most creative and entrepreneurial mindsets to exist within the SME, operational business world.
A situational bias exists within the UK Farming community, UK agricultural academia, UK Farming advocacy organisations and the industry media and commentariat, where the solutions to the problems that many freely elucidate and the outcomes that they desire are only considered within or relating to the structure of the existing economic paradigm and cultural deference that the general UK population has to the Public Sector, NGOs, Government, Politicians and public figures, or those in ‘a position of responsibility’ or influence.
The reluctance or objection to ‘going a different way’ that adheres to UK legal requirements, but is itself not led or reliant upon government, the public sector or any industry bodies that are heavily influenced by them, is based purely upon the idea that Farmers themselves taking responsibility for investing in either the diversification of their own enterprises or collectively with other local or like businesses, will offer unacceptable levels of financial risk. Whereas waiting for the government, public sector, industry bodies and those businesses like Supermarkets to ‘wake up’ and ‘invest to save UK Farming’ will not.
The latent pool of knowledge, experience and understanding that exists within the Farming community, throughout agricultural academia and the supporting sectors, has the ability to offer industry changing outcomes that would quickly return Farming and Food Production to the central role within UK Communities that it traditionally had, and still should. Based on the reality that Food is as essential as Air to breathe and Water to drink for every person, each and every day.
Those members of the wider Farming community with platforms and voices to be heard remain focused on promoting the issues, solutions and outcomes as their own view and experience enables them to see them. Too often overlooking the reality that there are profound threads of commonality between every one of them which are all too often being overlooked, as the default position is for everyone to focus on what is ‘right’, only for them.
This was the situation a year ago. A year before that and so on. IHT has just focused the imagination of more people than before. But could prove counterproductive.

It doesn’t stop there. But going into further reams of detail will not help anyone who is not open to the collaborative, community approach that has now become necessary for UK Farming to evolve and regenerate itself into a model of working and operation that will not just allow it to survive. But actually thrive.

As an experienced business leader who spent 12 years in frontline politics after being a local government officer and senior charity manager, then embarking on a research and thought journey that took me to complete a PGCert in Sustainable Ag and Food Security at the RAU, I have a perspective on what is happening that doesn’t conform to stereotype to say the very least.

Whilst I have written extensively about the Food Security situation, attempted to broaden others perspectives on how the Food Chain really works, suggested a way to use the issues with Red Tractor to launch a new Food Quality and Provenance Assurance Scheme to begin a revolution in UK Farming and focused on the role of Local Food Chains with the Community in the Future, I have been doing so purely with the intent of opening a door.

The door I am referring to opens to the room of collaboration and discourse where using everything as we are doing it and know it, is left behind. Because this all represents the past, and what whoever or whatever is really driving all the problems that UK Farming faces wants to happen and intends to be in place.

Although I made my misgivings clear about the aims and approach of No Farmers No Food from the start and have seen nothing yet to suggest that they are anything other than a problem awareness raising vehicle, I keep a close eye. Hoping that something will change and a touchpaper or catalyst might appear that will at least begin to bring the different ideas, views and suggested solutions together in a way that opens every mind to learning from each other’s views and most importantly, leaves the egos behind.

In a tweet yesterday, No Farmers No Food, talked up the value of marketing boards as many will remember them with the inference or suggestion that they could be of great help to UK Farming, if they were to exist now.

It was one of the rare occasions when I felt that I wanted to respond, seeing that there are principles that could be highly beneficial in the fight to save UK Farms and Food Security today, depending upon the approach taken and what the model of such organisations would be and how they would operate today.

I haven’t focused on ‘marketing boards’ in anything like the historic sense. In no small part as their demise arguably led and fed into many of the problems that the industry faces today. Because the platform they offered was not protected as it should have been by government and the public sector, and was in no small way exploited by a range of different profit driven organisatons for the levels of financial gain which have led to the crippling financial straightjacket that UK Farming now finds itself in.

However, Hector Wetherell McNeill from the George Boole Foundation Limited replied and and linked a paper to my tweet that they have recently published titled ‘Agricultural Commodity Marketing Boards’, which you will find if you follow this link HERE.

I’m grateful that Hector responded as he has done. As whilst I would suggest there is a broader picture to consider that I have touched upon in the points above, and I don’t believe that marketing boards are in and of themselves a solution to the mess that UK Farming is now in, there are a number of very valuable points and suggestions made that could be massively helpful within a cooperative operational business or some kind that has a system of governance that runs locally and outside the influence of any of the usual suspects that quickly come to mind.

I would certainly be supportive of the discussion group idea that the proposal discusses and feel sure that the communication technology that is now readily available could be used to create a discussion and ideas sharing platform that could prove to be game-changing indeed.

I will end here by saying only that there are no politicians and no political party that exists today that can or will be able to make the changes to the UK Farming industry that only Farmers and the businesses that are aligned with the sector can and have the power to do so themselves.

The only thing that is really stopping UK Farming from making the changes that are now needed is the recognition that the power to make those changes rests only with UK Farmers themselves.

Many thanks again to Hector and best wishes to you all.

Adam

Real Collaboration vs Policy Collaboration: The Choice That Will Shape the Future of Farming, Local Food Systems, and Food Security

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Your Beliefs Today create Everyone’s Experiences Tomorrow | New Book

How do you look at the world?

How is your view of the world different to other people?

What will tomorrow look like based on the view of the world you have today?

Would you change the way you view the world if you understood the difference between your view, other people’s views and what they could really mean?

These are all very important questions that most of us are typically too busy or distracted to even consider, let alone ask.

However, the consequences of us not doing so could be very profound, as the future will just happen to us unless we do so

Your Beliefs Today create Everyone’s Experiences Tomorrow invites you to consider a range of the different prevailing ways that people look at today’s world. How they came into being, and what – without change – they are likely to bring into our lives for our tomorrows.

Will you recognise yourself and what your beliefs today could bring to your future experiences?

Will you be happy with everything you believe?

Will you see your own perspective as very different?

Or will you choose to step forward into the future armed with the tools and power for change?

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Will Farmers advocates, membership representatives and activists make Inheritance Tax the hill that the future of U.K. Food Security dies on?

Uncomfortable to read as it may be, the well-known membership and advocacy organisations that supposedly enjoy ‘real’ influence on government and the other layers of ‘The Food Chain Onion’, and purportedly represent their members interests before anything else, are actually just players in an establishment game.

The officers and leaders amongst them value the access or relationships that they have with government departments, politicians and representatives above everything and to a level where they will not do anything that will risk those relationships.

When the wishes of the advocacy and membership organisations are aligned with what the government of the time is doing, we can be sure that industry representatives will walk away with what appear to be some great wins.

Just as they will appear to do so when the aims aren’t aligned and the politicians will make some sort of concession so that they can misrepresent and link to other issues that they will not rescind on.

This may regrettably yet prove to be the case with Inheritance Tax and linking it to UK Food Security. Just so that a narrative can be created that the UK Food Security issue has been solved with the intent that it heaps together all the issues Politicians and Government Departments don’t want to deal with, and builds the spurious narrative that ‘The Food Security problem is now solved’.

Although we can all be sure that representatives of these Organisations make very reasoned representations to those they meet and communicate with, they also take any reassurances and promises they obtain at face value.

They regrettably fall back on the way of thinking that ‘It’s just the way it is’ and that it is better and more beneficial to be ‘in the tent’ than to do anything that would risk their position, and might stop them from being allowed back in. As many smaller less well known organisations will have tried to their cost.

Advocacy isn’t working and isn’t going to work, because you cannot reason with those who are unreasonable

In many cases without even understanding why they are being unreasonable, our politicians and the officers and public sector representatives that surround them only see reason in doing and pursuing the public policies and actions that they believe to be best for everyone, whilst actually only doing what’s best for them.

Populist ‘activism’ and their current approaches

In the case of activist ‘organisation’ No Farmers No Food, whose yellow branding with the black silhouette tractor is capturing support, they are certainly well-meaning and led by good intention.

However, like the advocacy and membership organisations that are in The Food Chain mix, they are also missing the point that the best people to solve the problem aren’t the same ones that caused it.

And the problem we are all facing is much bigger than lots of talking and protesting about whatever gets traction in the media and appears to stick.

The priority of UK Politics today simply isn’t UK Farming and Food Security

In respect of Government and the Politicians we are dealing with, the faces and the branding might have changed in July. But the motives and the direction that drives them is very much the same as those who were in Power before.

As I write and publish in November 2024, there is nobody and no political movement or party out there in the Public realm that has the ability, system-wide understanding or the properly reasoned intent to tackle and change any of the problems we face, when the next General Election in the UK comes. Whether its within months OR in 5 years’ time.

This is a very serious problem for us all.

Understanding Who Controls Our Food Controls Our Future –Everything You Need to Know

The Local Economy & Governance System | Online Text

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Why UK Food Security depends on supporting UK Farmers

The seemingly constant talk about the Farmers’ Protest March that is being held in London on Tuesday 19th March certainly appears to have captured many of our thoughts.

The Farmers Inheritance Tax changes that were introduced in the 2024 Budget in October are certainly set to have a BIG impact upon UK Farming as we know it.

But whilst it’s easy to argue that Farmers should be subject to the same taxes as everyone else, we must all remember that we need at least 2x healthy meals a day to survive, and that Food and our access to it is therefore just as important as the air that we breathe and the water that we drink.

Food Production and UK Farms that are supplying fresh, nutritious, Locally Produced Food are as such a Public Good.

Their existence is essential for this reason and there must be support for Farmers – just like all different kinds of businesses have that are focused only on profit – so that they can stay that way.

The change in the Budget tells us that Politicians don’t see the future role of our Farms that way.

So, it is important that all of us – whether we are Consumers, Farmers or both – understand what is really going on across the UK Food Chain that is making Politicians believe that the direction of Food Production and UK Food Security is not only safe, but also good for everyone and fundamentally OK.

The link below will take you to the full online text of Who Controls Our Food Controls Our Future, which is also a Free to Download PDF and an e-book for Kindle (£1.99 in the UK from Amazon) which runs through the complexity and layers of The Food Chain, and the truths that are hidden in plain sight, from our everyday view.

There’s a lot to consider, no matter what we already know or the particular or perhaps ‘informed’ perspectives that we all have. So please do find the time if you can to have a look through, as you are likely to have a lot more questions of your own about why we are not giving priority to UK Food Production and the importance of Our Farms when you do.

Thank you for your interest and support.

#food #FoodSecurity #FarmersProtest #farmers #farming #foodchain

To download a FREE PDF Copy of Who Controls Our Food Controls Our Future, Please CLICK HERE. Alternatively, if you would like to download the Book for Kindle at £1.99 (UK Price), please follow the link through to Amazon that follows immediately below:

The last thing we need is a Farmers Revolt. But the U.K. DOES need a Farmer-led Food Chain Revolution, ASAP

With the Farmer’s March planned for this coming Tuesday, talk of all sorts of militancy and acts of rebellion from our Farmer’s have added to the chorus, with postulations and threats suggesting that a ‘Farmer Revolt’ could be on the way that will bring everything to a standstill, if the Farm Inheritance Tax changes aren’t overturned and the Farmers are seen to have got their way.

As covered in my blog yesterday, there really is no question that the Policy should be overturned. Because it will do damage to UK Farms, Farming and UK Food Security that we may very soon find ourselves unable to repair or restore to the correct place.

However, threatening or even talking up a ‘Revolt’ of any kind, could easily lead to consequences that nobody who is emotionally entrenched in this debate will have in mind. And they will certainly not expect.

It is vital we understand that Farmers are not dealing with real Leaders in our Government. These ‘politicians’ are not going to respond in ways that reflect anything other than who they are, why they are there and what they see as being the most important considerations for them – No matter how grounded the alternative and logic of the pro-Farming arguments levelled against them and their policies might be.

The culturally conditioned deference that we have for people because of job titles, roles, celebrity or even the number of people who follow, like and subscribe to them on social media, means that we automatically apply credibility to whatever they do.

We do so, without realising that we do so because we believe that they act, behave and approach everything in the same way we are, or that we believe we would do so, if we should find ourselves in exactly the same position as they are.

This ‘understanding’ works brilliantly until we disagree. But then we fall into the trap of believing and applying the same rationality for how they will behave, if we find ourselves on what we perceive to be the opposite side, whatever the reason might be.

There is much more to everything that this Government and the Government before it has done, is doing and will continue to do, if the political classes continue unhindered as things currently suggest that they will be.

The Budget move and the very clear statement made this week by former Blair Advisor John McTernan speaks Labour’s truth for the future they see for UK Farming.

The actions and words during the 2024 Budget and all of the interviews and messaging that has followed since, tell us that this really is the direction of travel that is ‘baked in’ for this Government.

It means these people really see no value in UK Farming as it is right now. Even though they may not be sharing what they anticipate the future of UK Food Production will be.

One thing we can be sure of however, is that our politicians are very smallminded and fearful. No matter what the drivers behind all of this really are.

If anyone genuinely believes that militancy and obstructive action will yield anything other than direct impact to anyone and everything effected on the days of the events themselves in this climate, they really should re-read the room.

Small, minded politicians are led by their own fears in everything they do. Cause they a big public problem that makes bad headlines for them and they will not hesitate to use every power at their disposal to end even the remotest possibility that Farmers could act this way or do the same to them again.

Its not communism or even the stupidity of incompetent politicians within the Political Party in power that led to this. WE keep electing people as public representatives who are fundamentally just the same.

They are coin-operated, do not understand what they are even supposed to be doing and will always look to whoever is complaining about what they are doing as the ideal direction to apportion blame.

However, even MORE importantly than the incompetence of our politicians; there are 39 days until Christmas – or less than 6 weeks.

For better or worse, the Supermarket aisles are filled up with everything for what has sadly become an annual 3-month festival of consumerism that the British Public have now bought into.

The last thing that Farmers should contemplate doing this week is deliberately leveraging themselves into the middle of this equation, pissing off precisely all of the people they most need to be aligned with.

The Food Revolution we do need is one that places Food Production right back at the heart of Our Local Communities. With Farmers leading and playing their part from the very front.

The destinies of Our Farmers, Our Communities and Our People are intricately entwined. Because of just how important Food is to each of us for survival and the role at the centre of life that Food plays, that we have been deliberately encouraged to overlook or forget.

We must not allow the establishment to diminish the role of UK Food Security any further. Irrespective of whether the reason for all they have done is just stupidity or maligned intent.

However, we also need to be clear that for as long as we have the same kinds of People running the Country, speaking with the same voices and influencing people just because of the platforms they have, they and only they remain the ones who legitimately get to set and control the national agenda. No matter how damaging to all of us it really is.

They will continue to do so, until an agenda that legitimately sits outside of their control exists and grows to benefit all of us and take their place.

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