BY ALAN HARRIS AND SHELLIA KENNEDY
CHEPSTOW, South Wales - "A few days ago I got L 47.60 for
one lamb, then it fell to L 41.70, and now its L 37.38" ( L
1 = $1.60). This was one of several examples David Maddocks,
a working farmer in South Wales, told the Militant to show
how small farmers like him are facing severe economic
conditions. David and his wife, Sue, grow wheat, oats, and
barley. They also rear 170 cattle and 200 sheep on their 300-
acre farm, which is medium-sized for this region.
They described how small farmers are hit with continual price increases for materials, pesticides, fuel, and equipment, while the prices received for what they produce continue to decline. David said there is no respite from the escalating costs. For example, they have recently had to pay L 30,000 for a new tractor, and two other heavily used machines that needed replacing. The recent government-imposed hike in the price of red diesel fuel has added to the cost of running essential equipment such as tractors.
The Maddocks are not alone among working farmers in the United Kingdom. Real farm incomes have dropped by 75 percent in the past two years. And thousands of related jobs for veterinarians and in the feed and machinery industries have disappeared.
A Financial Times article explained, "At first it was red meat livestock, pigs and poultry farmers who suffered; now it is farmers in every sector."
Milk prices drop 30 percent
An article in the current issue of the National Farmers
Union paper Farming Wales, entitled "Grim Times for
Dairymen," reports milk prices are almost 30 percent lower
than two years ago and many farmers are receiving milk prices
that are well below the cost of production.
Earlier this year hill farmer Jack Jones tried to sell 140 good quality four-year-old ewes to a sheep dealer and exporter. He offered to sell them at L 40 for the lot, delivered, but the reply from the dealer was "you give me L 40 and I'll take them."
Hill farmer, Hywel James Morris, told the Guardian that after paying the auction fees and the government tax, he got "less than a bag of chips" for each of his 44 ewes.
Brian Huxley, another sheep farmer, said, "Some hill farmers have been digging holes and burying them. They have even dumped them at the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals offices in protest."
Not only have the price farmers receive for lamb and mutton dropped drastically over the past months, but the bottom has dropped out of the wool market. Many sheep farmers will get 40 percent less for their wool than the previous year, and will not even cover the cost of shearing.
Russia had been a major purchaser of wool produced in Britain, but because of the economic crisis there, the orders have substantially stopped. This has contributed to the rise of large quantities of unsold fleece in Europe.
According to a report made last December by John Godfrey, chairman of the British Pig Association, pig farmers are losing about L 20 on every pig they sell. They are not just losing money he pointed out, but they are unable to pay for their feed.
Farm crisis is worldwide
David Maddocks had just returned from a visit to France
where he met and discussed with a number of farmers the
situation they face and how they are coping. His opinion was
working farmers in France fared better than their
counterparts here due to the French government's farming
policy. He also said that the farming crisis is a global
issue and that exploited farmers across Europe, and possibly
the United States, would do well to get together in common
action.
Farmers like David and Sue Maddocks pointed to the myriad of problems facing working farmers like themselves: the "strong" pound; high interest rates charged by the banks and mortgage companies that raise the cost of borrowing money; the high prices charged by the big chemical and oil multinationals for fertilizers and fuel; the huge difference between what farmers receive for their produce and what the big food conglomerates like Tesco and Sainsburys receive.
Many of these working farmers are forced to declare bankruptcy and sell part or all of their farms - often to rich city-based business people who buy in order to turn the farm into a hobby or country retreat. The Maddocks also drew attention to the high rate of suicides among farmers, who are pressured by agencies of the UK government and the EU in Brussels. These institutions continue to pass more and more bureaucratic laws concerning the slaughtering of animals, their health and lineage, as well as increasing red tape governing the registration and exporting of livestock.
Many farmers are now discussing why their conditions are deteriorating, who is responsible, and what they can do to alleviate their worst problems.
The National Farmers Union, the principal farmers organization in Britain dominated by the wealthier farmers, projects a course that can only deepen the crisis.
NFU national president Ben Gill urged farmers attending the NFU Wales Council to continue to support the NFU's campaign to "Keep Britain Farming." "We must not flinch in putting across to the general public that British food is best," he said. He explained that he was appalled to hear demands that supermarket prices should be reduced, claiming, "What we need as farmers is more of the end price."
British chauvinist campaign
Toward this end, the NFU have produced car stickers and
other publicity stating "I Love British Beef," "Proud to
Serve British Beef," "Buy British," and "Keep Britain
Farming." This campaign, which also includes demands for the
government to stop "cheap foreign imports," plays into the
hands of the big capitalist farmers, the mass marketing food
distributors, and those who own supermarket chains. Such a
campaign feeds the national chauvinism perpetrated by all the
major political parties as well as the fascist-type
organizations like the British National Party.
The BNP has recently started publishing The British Countryman, a newspaper aimed at small farmers and agricultural workers.
A recent BNP leaflet titled Who Is Culling Britain's Farmers? demagogically claims to defend the family farms and attacks the NFU bureaucracy. It targets the politicians, supermarkets, advocates of "free trade," and large landowners as being at the root cause of the crisis in the countryside. The BNP is running several candidates in the June 10 European Union elections.
This rightist propaganda, which NFU leaders buy into, pits working farmers in this country against their counterparts abroad. For example, some UK farmers have attacked trucks loaded with Irish beef and on one occasion dumped part of the produce into the sea.
The crisis facing working farmers is acute and no one expects things will get better in the immediate future. Some, like David and Sue Maddocks, are reaching toward solidarity with other exploited producers around the world.
Shellia Kennedy is a member of the Rail, Maritime, and Transportation Union.