A Farming and Food Update

I thought it would be appropriate to write something in my role working with the Chaplaincy for Agriculture and Rural Life in Worcestershire.

Having recently had rogation-tide, and with the Three Counties Show coming up in a couple of weeks, it might be useful to offer some extracts from the many briefings I get about agriculture and rural issues.  It is interesting that this seems to be much more organised for this sphere that I find for my work on industry and employment issues.  Perhaps farmers and rural people see themselves as more of a community and perhaps that they need to promote their interests in a way that isn’t true of more diffuse parts of the economy where there is no shortage of information to be gleaned from the news media but it is more difficult to form a coherent picture.

Most of the information below comes from RuSource, which is an Arthur Rank Centre Project.  Other information can be found on the Diocese of Hereford’s website from their Chaplain, Nick Read.

Food inflation rose to 4.6%% in March and is well above general inflation (3.5%). The rise is due to an unusually large drop in food prices a year ago, rather than an increase now. The largest rise was among processed food products which rose by 8.1%.

The provisional estimate of Total Income from Farming for 2011 shows that the income to those with an entrepreneurial interest in the agricultural industry (typically farmers and their spouses) increased by 25% in real terms compared to 2010. This is the highest income level since the mid-1990’s and has been driven by strong world prices on the back of increased demand. Input costs have also increased, but not to the same extent as output (though there can be a lag in the increase of some inputs, such as animal feed).  There is more information on this and a graph on the effect of EU farm payments, which are affected by the exchange rate between the Euro and Sterling in a summary of Andersons Agribrief May 2012 that is part of the RuSource briefing for 31 May 2012 that has not yet been posted on the website.

Agricultural markets have been relatively stable over the last few months. World wheat prices followed a slight downwards trajectory, reflecting the strong Australian harvest and solid UK production.

On the whole UK livestock sector prices are little changed on the past month with the exception of sheep, where prices dipped slightly over the Easter period with increasing numbers of lambs being marketed earlier than the previous year.  This was borne out by farmers’ sentiments at Worcester Livestock Market during my chaplaincy visit a couple of weeks ago.  One farmer was explaining to me how poorer prices made it more difficult to invest in the business, given the price of much of the complex machinery that is needed on farms.

Cumulative milk production for the full milk year April 2011 to March 2012 was 1.4% higher than the previous year and the highest production level since 2005/06.  However, most milk buyers have now cut their prices by 2p when many farmers were hoping for a modest price rise of around 0.5p.  The fear is that this will hasten the exodus from the industry as more and more farmers are forced out by falling returns and there could be shortages of fresh milk unless it is imported because the loss of volume in the UK makes the industry not viable.  This will have a knock-on effect on the beef production as a lot of meat for burgers, mince and the like comes from the dairy side of the industry.

Free range egg prices have increased since the turn of the year, possibly as a consequence of a reduced supply originating from cage eggs since the introduction of the EU cage ban in January 2012, with free range eggs being sold into the non-free range market to make up supply contracts.  In March 2012, farmers welcomed the UK ban on imported eggs originating from conventional cages in EU member states.

Finally, looking beyond immediate concerns and prices, there are huge questions about long-term food provision in a world with increasing population and complex environmental concerns:

 ‘“The low value of food is caused by its abundance”. The danger is that pursuing maximum yields of high intensity crops now may undermine longer term food-security by degrading the ecosystems that agricultural production ultimately depends on. So the costs (and benefits) for the environment from food production should be internalized within the food system. Reducing food waste and changing diets would support population health and provide nutrition more efficiently – 30% to 50% of food is wasted worldwide.’

The rest of the paper (No. 1512) is worth reading on the RuSource website.  It raises many concerns about how we use the creation given to us by God, over which we have dominion (Gen 1: 28-30) as benevolent stewards not exploiters.  I wonder if many of us who are town and city dwellers have lost contact with the earth and see food as something that simply is to satisfy our needs and wants and because so much of the food chain is meeting that on an industrial scale that insufficient concern is given to the necessary rhythms and balance of nature.