We get the food system we pay for.

Without making any moral judgement on current production practices, the reason intensive poultry production takes the form it does is because of relentless pressure to be ever-cheaper, from retailers & consumers.

1/3
bbc.co.uk/news/uk-englan… But this isn’t just an issue for 🐓

Most of our 🌎 food system is predicated on a race to the bottom on retail cost. But this generates external costs; to welfare, climate & the environment.

Farmers = price takers in a free market system feeding on the planet’s natural capital.

Another piece on farming & the environment which makes no effort whatever to get into the detail.

It raises important Qs. But. Makes no attempt to provide solutions other than suggesting we either stop using neonics or stop growing 🇬🇧 sugar.

1/

theguardian.com/commentisfree/… Ok. So what does that look like?

Sugar beet afflicted with virus yellows can have yield reductions of up to 80%. No alternative control methods are currently available. And if we don’t grow sugar, demand will stay constant. So we just import cane sugar, right?

Well…

https://twitter.com/tom_clarke/status/1395055734677774342

Polarisation on food, farming & the environment, a 🧵

Since 2016 food, farming & the environment have rarely been out of the news. And rightly so: they impact every single one of us. Yet the quality of national debate on these vital issues has been (mostly) dire.

1/ With the vote to leave the EU in 2016 the UK was presented with a blank canvas for agriculture policy for the first time in 40 years. But the problems began here, with a government needing to find Brexit benefits spinning a line of misinformation about the CAP.

There are so many basic errors in this piece, it makes me so frustrated that the public see what’s happening in the countryside through such a distorted lens. How can we have an informed discussion when we get the basics wrong - after 6 years!

bbc.co.uk/news/science-e… - ELM is not a ‘farm subsidy’ scheme; it’s payments for environmental actions, largely on an income forgone basis, and will go far wider than farmers.

- It isn’t just for ‘landowners’

- There’s little to nothing in ELM about ‘producing food’.

.@CommonsEFRA unimpressed at government’s dismissal of its concerns for the impact of the NZ/UK FTA on 🇬🇧 farms, or of its call for MPs to have scrutiny of future trade deals as promised when we ‘took back control’.

committees.parliament.uk/committee/367/… Unfortunately, some in government seem keener to back our competitors (in the name of ‘the free market’) than their own domestic producers, who underpin the rural economy & 🇬🇧 food security.

https://twitter.com/FarmingUK/status/1617062005122240513

⬅️ Left: a coal fired power station

➡️ Right: a wind farm

Both produce exactly the same electricity, but nobody would claim the ⚡️ from these two sites has the same emissions footprint.

1/ ⬅️ Left: a monster truck

➡️ Right: a Tesla

Both transport people from A to B, but nobody would compare the two and claim their emissions footprint per mile was the same because ‘they’re both cars’.

You can see where I’m going with this.

2/

We need to talk about

🐂 cows
💨 carbon
🔥 climate change
& #COP26

1/🧵 Climate change is happening.

The world has warmed >1°c since the mid-C18th as a result of the anthropogenic (human) release of greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere 🌍

This is already having devastating consequences around the world: just ask almost any farmer 🌪

2/

Last night government defeated amendments to the #AgricultureBill which would have safeguarded our world leading #food & #farming standards.

Many @Conservatives MPs pledged to wear the wheatsheaf & #BackBritishFarming last month - inc my own.

A hollow & meaningless gesture. It’s baffling that a 🇬🇧 govt is fighting tooth & nail to renege on its own manifesto commitment, sell out its farmers & inflict the dregs of the global food bargain basement on the poorest in our society. And for what? This? ⤵️

Government Ag policy has drifted into unreality.

A thread ⤵️

1/ Brexit has ensured that no British government in memory has lavished so many warm words on its farmers, but the reality of policy discussions behind the scenes often seems far more ambivalent towards the future of a £122bn food & farming industry.

2/

dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8…

61% of the average English Farm Business Income derives from the CAP’s direct support - with huge variation across sectors.

From 8% in intensive poultry to a whopping 114% for mixed farming.

From 2021, government is withdrawing this direct support to £0 by 2027.

1/8 This direct financial support (to be found in most countries) allows UK farmers to produce some of the world’s cheapest food to the highest standards of safety, welfare & environmental sustainability.

Essentially, it underwrites our cheap food system.

2/8

Distillation of the ‘free trade at all costs’ argument from @rcolvile in today’s Times.

There’s so much wrong with this argument in 2020 it’s hard to know where to begin, but let’s have a go...1/ The economic right is obsessed with the historical example of the Corn Laws repeal (1846) as if that proves their every argument.

Trading historical vignettes, what about the near-catastrophic free market approach to food adopted pre-1914 & 1939?

2/

The battle over trade standards is political spin at its unedifying worst.

Nobody wants to see our high 🇬🇧 standards undercut, yet government is forced to tie itself in increasingly Gordian knots in an attempt to obfuscate & run down the clock [1/3]

fginsight.com/news/news/farm… Indeed, only 12 months ago @DefraGovUK SoS Eustice was passionately arguing that:

“unless 🇺🇸 meets 🇬🇧 standards, it can join the back of the queue on trade.”

It was a @Conservatives manifesto commitment to maintain these standards [2/3]

theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

There’s so much happening in 🌍 right now - including many tragedies - but farmers are asking you to lend your support to the campaign to protect 🇬🇧 food standards from being undercut in future trade deals.

Here’s why this is important & why you should care [1] British #farmers produce your food to some of the highest standards of animal #welfare, environmental #sustainability & #safety in the 🌍

Many of these are 🇪🇺 standards. With #Brexit we are now free to alter them. But what does this mean? [2]

A positive thread on the need for #aspiration for the #future of our #food & #farming industry...

🚜 🐓 🐄 🐑 🍎 🥦 🌾 🌳 🐝

[1/9] FARMERS 👩‍🌾

We’ve a lot to be #proud of in 🇬🇧 - but we can #aspire to #better.

More productive. More tech-savvy. More collaborative. More environmentally proactive.

Change is coming. We have to embrace it & lead the #change. Consumers respect us - that’s a big asset ✅

[2/9]

There’s a lot of talk around comparative 🇬🇧/🇺🇸 standards when it comes to #food and future #trade deals; but what do these differences mean in practice? ⤵️

[Thread, 1/10] EGGS 🥚

🇬🇧 - Minimum legal requirement of enriched cages (750 sq cm) + perch, nest box & litter.

🇺🇸 - No federal laws on hen welfare; voluntary guidelines suggest cages of 432 sq cm.

US 🍳 costs = 28% lower. That’s no yolk.

2/10

@JadoreLesRouges @NFUCountryside @NFUtweets The first and best step is only to buy meat produced with the @RedTractorFood logo which underpins high 🇬🇧 farm standards. If you want to go beyond that high baseline, look for the @LEAF_Farming marque where standards are even higher. For both, we’re talking about things 1/3 @JadoreLesRouges @NFUCountryside @NFUtweets @RedTractorFood @LEAF_Farming such as maximum stocking densities and environmental enrichment, as well as food safety & traceability standards. If you want to go ‘organic’, look for the @ofgorganic or @SoilAssociation logos 2/3