Opinion: The farmer ‘strike’ was a flawed idea from the start
© Tim Scrivener So, how did the call to stop loading milling wheat and leave our customers without hot cross buns over Easter go?
Not only were there plenty of hot cross buns on the shelves, but many were buy one, get one free. Launching it on April Fool’s Day about took the biscuit, or the bun in this case.
See also: Opinion – farming’s mistake has always been believing it is different
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Without the support of the commercial grain stores and blocking the ports, it was doomed to fail.
But what even was the message those taking part were trying to get through, and to whom? Presumably to show the government how much control farmers have over the food system.
So why target our customers – the supermarkets? Haven’t we just demonstrated how little power farmers have, and how disorganised we are?
Perhaps it has taught those who dreamed it up just how small and insignificant, on its own, each one of our businesses is.
Having a lot of followers on social media doesn’t guarantee their support or even agreement, and it certainly doesn’t qualify you to be taking stands on the industry’s behalf.
The folks dreaming these actions up have no place making us all look like fools.
The companies – both suppliers and customers – that farmers metaphorically sit across the table from are huge and, as individual businesses, we cannot hope to guide them in their conduct or negotiate with their terms.
But these are the people with the power to back a successful UK agriculture or let it fail.
We must demonstrate ourselves as an efficient, organised, professional body capable of helping them address their wider problems such as carbon emissions.
Having left Europe, and with Donald Trump’s tariffs in the pipeline and no government support, we are more vulnerable than ever.
The only way forward for farmers is together
The only way forward for farmers is together. We need to find ways of collaborating to bring negotiating power and marketing finances to extract more of the price of food and land it at the farm gate.
While it’s not perfect, Frontier and Openfield have banded together with companies including Nestlé and Purina to deliver their own growers’ group.
The processors get contracted supply, and the growers get a contracted price – but also the opportunity to offer these companies some eco credentials and some carbon offsetting as a bonus to their grain price through a members-only environmental scheme.
There are still successful sector groups others could emulate, like British Berry Growers, which represent 95% of all fresh berry growers in the UK.
It can genuinely speak for its sector. It can also bring weight to negotiations with wholesalers and retailers, as these customers can’t simply go to the next berry farmer and use them to undercut the first one.
As some of the failed attempts of farmer collaborations have proved, the makeup of the boards is fundamental to their success.
We need more farmers qualified to seriously represent our interests around the board tables, making the decisions that directly affect us.
We need the best and the brightest business minds backing farming, representing us in these roles.
The NFU, CLA and TFA cannot fulfil this role or be expected to; these actions do not link back to your land tenure but to your business income – and we are currently watching this disappear like sand through an hourglass.