Wednesday, December 25, 2024

Farming union President speaks up for farmers in Telegraph article rebuttal

NFU President Tom Bradshaw says Telegraph columnist Matthew Lesh needs an urgent lesson in how the UK’s food supply chains work.

The rebuttal follows an article in the paper in which Mr Lesh describes as absurd farmers’ claims that they’re bring undercut by lower quality imported produce, claiming that British farmers have benefitted from higher global food prices.
The NFU response has ben a letter to the paper, in which Mr Bradshaw writes: “I am not sure where columnist Mr. Lesh buys his weekly shop, but here in the UK we already have some of the cheapest food in the world relative to income. Previous generations spent over a third of their income on food, we now only spend around 11%.

“The notion that farmers have been benefitting from higher global food prices shows the need for an urgent lesson in how the UK’s food supply chains work. Retail price increases rarely make their way back to farmers and growers which is why we have been beating the drum for fairness in the supply chain for many years.

“Mr. Lesh also suggests that British farmers aren’t facing being undercut by lower standard imports, but there are currently no standards in place to safeguard farming business from imports that would be illegal to produce here. That is why, alongside the WWF, we have written to the three main political parties in England to call for the formation of a core standards commission.

“With war and climate change wreaking havoc on food production across the world, does Mr. Lesh really believe we can feed our nation, and a growing global population, by relying on imports?

“British farmers are not failing. They produce food for the nation to some of the highest standards in the world and have an ambition to produce more. But farms need to make a profit to invest in their businesses to continue producing food, and we need the right regulatory framework to do that. This must be a priority for government because our food security depends on it.”

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this story on our news site - please take a moment to read this important message:

As you know, our aim is to bring you, the reader, an editorially led news site and magazine but journalism costs money and we rely on advertising, print and digital revenues to help to support them.

With the Covid-19 pandemic having a major impact on our industry as a whole, the advertising revenues we normally receive, which helps us cover the cost of our journalists and this website, have been drastically affected.

As such we need your help. If you can support our news sites/magazines with either a small donation of even £1, or a subscription to our magazine, which costs just £33.60 per year, (inc p&P and mailed direct to your door) your generosity will help us weather the storm and continue in our quest to deliver quality journalism.

As a subscriber, you will have unlimited access to our web site and magazine. You'll also be offered VIP invitations to our events, preferential rates to all our awards and get access to exclusive newsletters and content.

Just click here to subscribe and in the meantime may I wish you the very best.









Latest news

Related news

By continuing to use the site, you agree to the use of cookies. more information

The cookie settings on this website are set to "allow cookies" to give you the best browsing experience possible. If you continue to use this website without changing your cookie settings or you click "Accept" below then you are consenting to this.

Close