Farmers face Big Brother IT plan
17 December 2001
Farmers face Big Brother IT plan
By FWi staff
SMALL family producers have condemned a government plan which would force them to install a computer link to Whitehall as “Big Brother for farmers”.
A draft memo by the Department for Food, Environment and Rural Affairs considers making farmers produce an e-enabled whole farm plan.
This would encompass the total assets of each farm, detailing how the producer proposes to make best use of them in sustainable farming terms.
The Daily Telegraph says it has seen a copy of the memo, which is being considered by Defra secretary Margaret Beckett.
The information would be stored on Defras computers, giving it an unprecedented insight into every farmers activities, says the newspaper.
It would also mean every farmer having to buy buying a computer to link them to Whitehall.
Michael Hart, chairman of the Small and Family Farms Alliance, said the plan smacked of Big Brother-style state snooping.
And the costs involved in acquiring a computer would be “another nail in the coffin of the small family farm”, he added.
The memo says the plan to monitor farmers electronically springs from a feeling that more must be done help farmers comply with requirements.
It reveals a list of regulatory requirements and checks that would have to be performed electronically as part of a farm licensing scheme.