Newsbot Posted December 24, 2007 Share Posted December 24, 2007 The Isle of Man's agricultural industry receive £600,000 to help ensure its long term future. Source : http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/world/...man/7159512.stm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempus Fugit Posted December 24, 2007 Share Posted December 24, 2007 it doesn't mention 'consultants' anywhere Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moghrey Mie Posted December 24, 2007 Share Posted December 24, 2007 The Isle of Man's agricultural industry receive £600,000 to help ensure its long term future. Source : http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/world/...man/7159512.stm How much money has the Creamery had over the years????????? Why don't they privatise it and see whether it is viable or not? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silentbob Posted December 25, 2007 Share Posted December 25, 2007 The Isle of Man's agricultural industry receive £600,000 to help ensure its long term future. Source : http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/world/...man/7159512.stm How much money has the Creamery had over the years????????? Why don't they privatise it and see whether it is viable or not? IOM Creameries IS private as far as I am aware. As is IOM Fatstock, they both have Government officials present (Gov Vet etc) but that is about it I think. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pat Ayres Posted December 25, 2007 Share Posted December 25, 2007 How about realistic pricing structures and remove the government subsidy to make them work for their money like everyone else. Ask why we import meat etc; when we export the same stuff, count those food miles and carbon emissions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
triskelion Posted December 25, 2007 Share Posted December 25, 2007 Both are cooperatives owned by the member farmers. How about realistic pricing structures and remove the government subsidy to make them work for their money like everyone else. Ask why we import meat etc; when we export the same stuff, count those food miles and carbon emissions. Sounds like you don't know very much about farming. The hours they have to work are illegal in most workplaces in the Western world, and they have to do their job every single day. What constitutes a realistic pricing structure? One where you don't have to pay very much for what you get? Consumers have demanded ever lower prices with ever higher expectations that all too often do not accurately reflect the realities of farming. The idea that farmers spend all their time sitting round then do a bit of milking or whatever is absurd. I know people in agriculture that have to work 7am-midnight for weeks during harvest periods. What possibly possess you to think farmers don't have to work for their money? As for your import/export point, this is a fact of a free market world. It may seem slightly bizarre, but what do you propose? Make it illegal to buy imported meat goods until all the Manx ones are eaten? Food miles as a concept is effectively dead, having been totally devalued by the obsession with carbon emissions. It was orginally supposed to be much more about knowing where your food came from and the processes involved in making it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silentbob Posted December 25, 2007 Share Posted December 25, 2007 You can buy MANX beef in the UK much cheaper (half the price in UK Tescos) than you can buy manx beef over here, also, it is better quality as the grade A stuff almost always goes to export. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mollag Posted December 25, 2007 Share Posted December 25, 2007 Perhaps someone with access could find out how much we pay farmers in say the last 10years the list should include hill farm subsidies for lamb Export subsidies for dairy products export susidies for fatstock exports Grain price guaruntees flour subsidies to bakers direct grants to farms for equipment the running of laxey mill the building off litts the running of litts the cost of building the abbotoir the building of the dairy And all the other "wheezes" that keep the farm trough full of taxpayers money. There arent that many farmers but the figure will be huge. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TerryMcCann Posted December 25, 2007 Share Posted December 25, 2007 Marketing initiative no 1 Pack the sausages in something that stops them looking like the leftovers from an autopsy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alias Posted December 26, 2007 Share Posted December 26, 2007 Perhaps someone with access could find out how much we pay farmers in say the last 10years That's a bit unfair, a lot of industries/businesses pick up grants/tax relief, it's like using total revenue of the island as a measure of how well it's doing. Most of the agricultural grants have some direction and requirements at least.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pat Ayres Posted December 26, 2007 Share Posted December 26, 2007 If the island meat industry isn't protected, why do tesco throw away any meat imported accidently due to picker error. I have seen this done many times, it's wasteful and protectionist. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mollag Posted December 26, 2007 Share Posted December 26, 2007 I am guessing but as i last heard it the amont of money paid to keeping farms which are not viable is huge, more than all other industries put together. If after paying these hard earned public pennies to the farms, we got say reasonably priced lamb in our shops we could grin and bear it, but no, the main beneficiary of the manx trasury input thru export subsidy is the punters of liverpool etc, who pick up cheap lamb etc, paid for on the whole by us! There arent that many farms now, those we have concentrate not on market need but rather which product attracts the most grant aid, so we overproduce in dairy and lamb, all excess is is dumped on an already flooded EEC market at rock bottom prices, backed up by export subsidy. Does any other industry get this scale of protectionist policy? i think not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alias Posted December 26, 2007 Share Posted December 26, 2007 If after paying these hard earned public pennies to the farms, we got say reasonably priced lamb in our shops we could grin and bear it, but no, the main beneficiary of the manx trasury input thru export subsidy is the punters of liverpool etc, who pick up cheap lamb etc, paid for on the whole by us!There arent that many farms now, those we have concentrate not on market need but rather which product attracts the most grant aid, so we overproduce in dairy and lamb, all excess is is dumped on an already flooded EEC market at rock bottom prices, backed up by export subsidy. Does any other industry get this scale of protectionist policy? i think not. To be fair it's as much the nature of these subsidies as the farmer's themselves which has created the supply/demand gaps (a problem which has plagued the EU). As a business, farmers have to aim to make profit - and nowadays pretty much the only way to do that is to pick up the subsidies. Ergo, government has control of food production (which is partly what the subsidies were for - giving farmers money in return for the government having more power over the extent and nature of food production, although some of that is now shifting to 'land management') rather than just the 'free market'; the free market is also not perfect - in agriculture you have the problem of welfare standards, with Brazilian beef only now beginning to be banned) and the supply chain being a few seasons behind the demand (less important in other industries, but in emergencies can result in famines and suchlike). I'm not going as far to say as funding shouldn't be changed or reduced -- I think a bit more transparency and auditing wouldn't go a miss (also a statement of intentions for the industry before starting new subsidies), but I don't think the agricultural industry could cope with having it's lifeline cut at a time of change in market direction and supermarket oligopoly. Dependence on foreign food imports isn't something I'd want for the future.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mollag Posted December 26, 2007 Share Posted December 26, 2007 your points are or were valid after the war when self sufficiency was the aim, snag is it had to be alongside self sufficiency in fuel also. The Sainted Margaret put paid to that by closing the coal industry and crippling the nuclear industry, shifting the UK to an oil import dependancy. Soon enough we will hear " the iom must be self sufficient" as a justification for supporting farming which we must not forget is a business, not a charity, not a social service its a drain on the economy. We need more than lamb and milk to be self sufficient and i cant see it ever happening. Farming is not unique in being a failing industry, look at our tourism industry, fishing, herring processing all gone because they could not make it pay. time to close the tap. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moghrey Mie Posted December 26, 2007 Share Posted December 26, 2007 If after paying these hard earned public pennies to the farms, we got say reasonably priced lamb in our shops we could grin and bear it, but no, the main beneficiary of the manx trasury input thru export subsidy is the punters of liverpool etc, who pick up cheap lamb etc, paid for on the whole by us!There arent that many farms now, those we have concentrate not on market need but rather which product attracts the most grant aid, so we overproduce in dairy and lamb, all excess is is dumped on an already flooded EEC market at rock bottom prices, backed up by export subsidy. Does any other industry get this scale of protectionist policy? i think not. To be fair it's as much the nature of these subsidies as the farmer's themselves which has created the supply/demand gaps (a problem which has plagued the EU). As a business, farmers have to aim to make profit - and nowadays pretty much the only way to do that is to pick up the subsidies. Ergo, government has control of food production (which is partly what the subsidies were for - giving farmers money in return for the government having more power over the extent and nature of food production, although some of that is now shifting to 'land management') rather than just the 'free market'; the free market is also not perfect - in agriculture you have the problem of welfare standards, with Brazilian beef only now beginning to be banned) and the supply chain being a few seasons behind the demand (less important in other industries, but in emergencies can result in famines and suchlike). I'm not going as far to say as funding shouldn't be changed or reduced -- I think a bit more transparency and auditing wouldn't go a miss (also a statement of intentions for the industry before starting new subsidies), but I don't think the agricultural industry could cope with having it's lifeline cut at a time of change in market direction and supermarket oligopoly. Dependence on foreign food imports isn't something I'd want for the future.. www.farmsubsidy.org In the EU you can find out who gets subsidies eg HM Queen. We should have the same openness here. Let's see an annual list of who gets what. It's our money. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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