Q&A with the Family Farmers’ Association

2014 is the International Year of Family Farming. Pippa Woods, founding member of the Family Farmers’ Association, explains why small farms are so important. Olivia Cooper reports

What is the Family Farmers’ Association all about?

It started out as the Small Farmers’ Association in 1979. Farms were getting bigger and bigger but there was – and still is – nothing to show that broad acres are any more productive than smaller farms. We appreciate that it now takes more acres to support a family in anything like comfort. But we are very concerned that DEFRA, supported by the NFU, seems to believe the continuous process of farms getting ever larger is desirable – it isn’t. Farming is a way of life as well as a business and somebody needs to speak up for the smaller family farmers.

Do you represent large family farms as well as smaller ones?

Not really. The EU definition is farms that rely primarily on family members for labour and management. But we have farmers of all sizes on the committee, and plenty of non-farming members. There are lots of people who don’t want the countryside divided up into just a few huge farms. Certainly, as farm size has increased our self-sufficiency has reduced and many people believe that production is greater on small farms.

In the 1980s research showed production and profitability peaked at 630 acres. Despite the propaganda, there has been no research since then that shows that bigger is better, or that has investigated the social and environmental impact of ever-increasing farm size.

Why are family farms so important?

They’re important to the environment and to the community. If you have 10 farms of 250 acres each rather than one farm across 2,500 acres, you have a lot more people employed – which is better for the community – and a lot of smaller fields – which is better for the environment. I was a parish councillor for 35 years and during that time all but one of us on the council were farmers. Now most farmers don’t have time for community activities.

Are you from a farming family yourself?

No, my parents didn’t farm. My husband had farming relatives and always had an ambition to be a farmer. I knew him before the war when he ran the Dartington Hall School farm and we met up again after the war. We spent seven years in Sudan. He worked in the government’s agriculture department there and we saved up to buy the farm here at Aveton Gifford in Devon. Next year I’ll have been here 60 years.

What is the biggest challenge facing family farms?

Making a living! In the 1970s we had 112 acres, 60 sheep, 1,000 laying hens and 60 dairy cows and we could afford to employ several regular workers. Now it’s all down to my son, David, who has 200 hilly acres, 60 suckler cows and up to 140 beef cattle, with no regular help. It’s questionable how long he can keep it up.

Is that being addressed by decision makers?

No – they want cheap food. It’s a very strange thing that throughout the world, the people who produce the food are the lowest paid.

Where do you stand on issues such as payment capping and modulation?

We absolutely believe in payment capping, and most average farmers are also in favour, so it’s a shame the NFU and DEFRA keep throwing it out. Modulation is difficult – it would be much better if money deducted from vital farm subsidies could be devoted entirely to activities that help to keep farming viable.

If there’s no cap, then modulating the big farmers to help those farming in difficult conditions and to benefit the environment is fine. Environmental payments have become an important source of income, often of survival, for farmers in the more attractive areas of England.

Many farmers fear they may not be able to continue to farm in their present way when their environmental scheme comes to an end. This could be disastrous for both their viability and their wildlife.


At what level would you cap?

The EU suggested about £260,000 and I agree – the single farm payment is the profit level for most farmers and nobody needs a profit of more than £260,000. That’s one of the reasons that agricultural land prices have gone up so much – big farmers are reinvesting the single farm payment in land, which is pricing smaller farmers out of the market.

What sort of help would you like to see for family farms?

When we started, there was help available for fencing, buildings and roads, all to make the farms more viable. Now, millions are given out through the Rural Development Programme to very large schemes. Because it has to be match-funded it mainly goes to people who already have cash available.

I’d like to see that money being given out more liberally to small farmers, to help them improve their productivity. We’ve just spent £35,000 on a new slurry pit to comply with nitrate vulnerable zone legislation and there aren’t any grants available for that – a lot of dairy farmers have given up as a result.


What do you think about the government’s response to TB and the way it impacts on family farms?

It’s been pathetic. The solution was there: badgers were culled in the 1980s and that reduced TB to almost zero. Then the government gave it up, and although they soon realised their mistake, foot-and-mouth and then the RSPCA got in the way, and now the badger population is out of control. The impact on family farms is absolutely dreadful. One of my neighbours lost 10 of his 12 suckler cows and another lost a large swathe of her dairy herd.

How would you change the policy?

People have to realise that TB is a nasty disease. It’s a zoonosis and it shouldn’t be left to run rampant throughout the countryside. It would be far better for badgers to be healthy. It would be good to get the PCR [polymerase chain reaction] test in use to identify diseased setts and take them out. More should also be made of the damage that large badger populations can cause – we have hardly any hares or hedgehogs left around here.

How do we attract new entrants?

There’s no problem attracting new entrants; there are plenty of people who want to farm. The problem is finding them land. I think the government should give large landowners a tax advantage if they let land to new entrants and give new entrants tax incentives as well to help them on their way.

What are your hopes for the Year of Family Farming?

I hope it will bring to people’s attention that there is a real value in family farming, and that there is a future in which not all food production is down to a few enormous enterprises. I’m a strong believer that small is beautiful.


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