Fair trade must begin at home if we are to secure our future food supply

Director CLA North, Douglas Chalmers, has expressed concern over the current unsettling combination of spiralling food and fuel prices, and says that unless farmers receive a fair share of the retail price, rural areas will struggle to stay in business.

He is uniquely qualified to comment on the rural economy for, as well as running his own small farm, he also represents the interests of some 4,500 members and their businesses who are involved in the full breadth and depth of the rural economy across the North.

Mr Chalmers says: "Much has been made of civil unrest in other countries, and the role that food inflation has played in this. It is hard to imagine that food riots could happen here, but it's not so long ago that fuel inflation did indeed lead to united civil action.

 

"Food and fuel are always going to be emotive because they're not discretionary – we need them. With further cuts to rural bus services threatened, private transport is even more essential simply for travelling to work, attending education or visiting the doctor, as well as buying food, never mind for social purposes. Goods cannot be delivered to rural areas any other way, so any increases in fuel costs will have real effects on all aspects of people's lives. Fuel and vehicle tax increases can hit rural areas disproportionally hard because the motor vehicle is the only reliable form of transport and communication, yet many feel they are being priced off the road.

 

"Recent figures from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development revealed that in January food inflation in the UK reached 6.3 percent on an annual basis. Considering the losses in jobs and constraints on wage increases over the same period, this is indeed alarming, even before considering the comparative figure in the Eurozone was just 1.5 percent.

 

"With a growing population eating more, and increasing production and distribution costs we have to face the fact that food is unlikely to get any cheaper. This should raise a number of questions and cause us to seriously consider just how vulnerable are we to actual food shortages.

 

"Of course, we live in a temperate country, with a highly efficient and productive farming industry so, in theory, we should be fine. Except that many of these efficient and productive farmers still struggle to make a trading profit, and continue from year to year bolstered by their support payments for providing Public Goods – the landscape, biodiversity, water and carbon storage for which there is no real market. These are demanded by the public and benefit us all.

 

"Mother Nature has yet again reminded us of how easily she can sweep away much of what we take for granted, so we would be foolish to ignore the environmental risks to future food production. In recent years, other countries have stopped exports of food or energy, either to protect their own population or to make a political point.

 

"Although we are only about half self sufficient in food, it would be naïve to think that stopping imports would solve all our problems. This really would be placing all our eggs in one basket. But we do need to ensure that we have a farming infrastructure in place to provide food and environmental security.

 

"Our farmers and land managers are currently the poor relations in the food sector. Simply compare the returns of farmers to those of the processors and retailers. Ensuring a fair return for their produce would go some way to restoring their confidence in the future, and encourage them to invest in stock, buildings, machinery, seed and people. In short, it would enable them to continue to feed us.

 

"But, as Euro-politicians debate the future of the Common Agricultural Policy, there must also be a realisation that we need to keep farmers on the land to manage the environment and all the benefits that we both need and want from it, and also to sustain many of our rural communities.

 

"The days have long gone since high food prices meant affluent farmers. Indeed it seems the opposite is the norm, and this is something we must address now. We have always said that fair trade should start at home, and we will continue to do so."