FARMER FOCUS-PETER HOGG
FARMERS FOCUS; PETER HOGG
THE CLOSING down of British agriculture will continue with renewed vigour in 2005.
Despite unprecedented rises in our input costs – including fuel, fertilisers and pesticides – Chancellor Gordon Brown still added another 1p a litre to red diesel. We have a barn conversion holiday home that makes, after expenses, 2500 a year – just sufficient to pay the fuel tax on our yearly red diesel bill.
Meanwhile, the government is consulting on the use of red diesel. Could the results see a lowering of restrictions and taxes? More likely the opposite will be true.
Some months ago I was on the NFU parliamentary committee looking at consultations on soil protection.
At the time I warned we must persuade our politicians to aim this at out of town over-development which sterilises soils forever and the last thing we needed was over-zealous jobsworths giving out prosecutions to farmers with tractors in wet fields. Yet a new battalion of “puddle police” seem ready to do just that.
The ban on the burning of farm rubbish highlights another rule in turmoil, which will add expense to us all. Why can’t this rubbish simply be burned in co-fired power stations for the recovery of energy?
Instead, we are to return containers for recycling, which after shredding will then be remanufactured into new products. Such a process will use even more energy and I can just see the headline in the Daily Mirror “Children”s toys made from farmers” chemical containers”.
After reading a nine-page document on double-tagging of sheep, how will anyone have the time to look after more than about 40 sheep with the record keeping required. Already half of our meat is imported – and this trend can only accelerate.
hogg@lineone.net