AGRICULTURE, FOOD SECURITY & EDUCATION

THERE IS A MENU WHICH CAN BE A TEMPLATE TO START THE DEBATE.

SOME FACTS:

1. 69% of Britain is owned by less than 1% of the population.
2. A third of the UK is owned by the aristocracy.
3. House prices rarely go up. It is the land they are built on that increases in value. The housing crisis is a land crisis.
4. Over £3 billion of public money is given out every year in farming subsidies. Most of this money goes to people who already have huge amounts of money, be it capital or property assets.
5. Much of the £3 billion given out in farm subsidies does not go to producing food, but activities like racing and grouse shooting.
6. It should not matter what or how much one owns, it’s what you do with it that matters. Governments seem to value property, then tax you on it. In order to allow more young people to get into farming, we should encourage tenant farming, rents based on income and not land values.
7. As the UK comes out of the European Union, there should be more capital available to help our own food producers produce quality meats and dairy products, and health and well-being of livestock should be held to a high standard.
   

A FOCUS ON FOOD

We have visited some of the new estates that are being built in the South East, and we can well understand why we are seeing an incremental increase in illness, self-harm and depression. There is no real open space or community feeling, and people regard their neighbours with suspicion. A lot of our broken society can be attributed to the fact that we are building what developers want to sell, and not what is needed.

The average household debt is £15,400. If we mainly had different ways to house ourselves this would not be the case. Too much of one’s income is being spent on rents or mortgages. In 1900 the average person spent 10% of their income on housing costs (then mainly rent). In 2020, it can be as high as 60% of our income. If we spent more on our food and less on housing, we would all benefit.

OTHER INFORMATION

● Interest rates have been kept deliberately low to keep the housing market vibrant and to keep raising values, thus conning the people that they are getting better off (what a con that is!). If one is to save for an older age, one needs a reasonable return, at least 6%. Once interest rates go up, repossessions will be rife. So, who is holding the safety net? There should be a running track, an indoor cricket and football pitch on all new large developments for all ages to use.

● A self-sufficient garden for residents would be a health and well-being benefit. We are spending £24 billion a year on housing benefits and £34 billion a year on helping first time buyers to get onto the housing ladder. This capital could build all the houses we need by having a building contractor, and not a developer who is out for his own gains. Using a community land trust would answer many of the nation’s problems.

● It is said that a third of the world’s population goes to bed hungry. With the global population now at roughly 8 billion people, it is estimated it will be 10 billion in twenty years. If we don’t act on pollution and the environment, the population could quickly go down to five billion with mass famine and disease. Whilst supermarkets promote cheap food, this is a short-term gain.

● One solution is to create small farms that one can enjoy and create employment, instead of paying set-aside or countryside stewardship, the money could be used to help create new local produce including cheese, a smokery, cutting room for meat, a bakery for pies etc. Local dairy, free range poultry for egg and meats, fruit storage, freezers for storage, and energy crops should be utilised. It would be better for 10 farmers to have 40 cows each, rather than one farmer with a few hundred. Animals would have better care and attention.

● Farmers who have no charge on their land are paying high rents for short-term lettings, so the price is spread over the whole. If they were paying a yearly charge, they may not be so keen. The young farmer can’t bid on fair ground. In order to encourage more family farms, we should introduce a land tax.

The following suggests a guideline as to rental value:

English Rates -

Grade One - £50 per acre

Grade Two - £40 per acre

Grade Three - £30 per acre

Grade Four - £20 per acre

Therefore, if one inherited a farm one would only pay tax equivalent of rental value and this could be paid annually into the National Fund. For example, if one inherited Grade Three land, the following would apply: 1-100 acres - no tax, 101-200 acres - 50% of rental value i.e., 200 acres = £3,000 p.a. 201-300 acres - 50% of rental value i.e., 300 acres = £4,500 p.a. over 300 acres - 100% of rental value. Where land is let, no tax should be payable. This would prevent multi-nationals from purchasing and controlling large estates. But there could be an advantage if they created long-term farming tenancies. Living accommodations must go with the holdings, so livestock is looked after properly.

● Family farms, where there are beneficiaries who are not farming the farm, should be made into part tenancies, for the non-farming families then would receive a rent. This would prevent the farming members having to borrow on land values rather than on agriculture income values. We could have a ruling where the farmer could pay a rent to other members of the family, so they become a part tenant of the holding. Rents would have to be within income from produce. Anyone buying new land would have all subsidies stopped. The land would come under any new scheme.

● The above rules would help some of the African nations sort out the land problems. If Africa were to establish boundaries similar to the European module, in order to concentrate on making their local land more fertile, then Africa could feed itself.

● Money the UK spent towards the EU could be used to help young people get into farming, and other start-up businesses, by means of giving them financial help. In order to keep a policy for food security, we need to make producing food a paying enterprise. We would not then need to consider GM crops.

● Council-owned farms should be transferred to a farming company to stop councils being able to sell them off. There needs to be a minimum price at which producers are paid. Items like milk could be guaranteed up to a certain number of cows on a holding, thus stopping multi-cow units. We should create animal welfare, not animal factories. There are too many speculators in forward buying of food, and land investors.

A new concept is needed for land use. We are spending £24 billion a year on housing benefits, £34 billion on helping first time buyers to get on the housing ladder; all this could be stopped. A bigger issue is why don't we produce more of what we import. There are many young people coming out of agriculture colleges who would like to have their own account and have a small holding and work up to a larger farm. Why doesn't this happen? It's because we have speculators purchasing land as a safe haven for their capital. If one farms an acre of land, it would take one 500 years to earn £100,000. That gives you an idea what little you would earn. At the same time, everyone needs to eat. We see short-term lets, but farming is a long-term plan that needs to be properly or fairly rewarded.