[BBC News] Farmers thank island for support

[mollag]

Snag is that the manx produce is the expensive produce and that is before you factor in Hill farm subsidies, general market subsidies, cost of building dairy, cost of building abbotoir, cost of building/running Litts, export subsidies/price guaruntee subsidies for grain producers and ramsey bakeries etc, and who benefits most? why the scousers, they get manx lamb at a knock down price without paying a penny in manx subsidies----that makes me feel so happy.

[Slim]

No, they couldn't make money doing what they are, with everyone bitching about how expensive food was, because people who found Manx farmers' food too expensive would simply buy from other farmers, whose food isn't.

Moron

 

....because the imported food is subsidised too, moron!

 

(good game this!)

[Tugger]

No, they couldn't make money doing what they are, with everyone bitching about how expensive food was, because people who found Manx farmers' food too expensive would simply buy from other farmers, whose food isn't.

Moron

 

....because the imported food is subsidised too, moron!

 

(good game this!)

 

New Zealand farm produce isn't subsidised. And anyway, my objection is that as a taxpayer I end up subsidising our farmers. I couldn't give a flying fuck if my food is nice and cheap as a result of some French/German/Japanese/American mug subsidising their farmers.

 

So you appear to have missed the point, moron

[gazza]

No, they couldn't make money doing what they are, with everyone bitching about how expensive food was, because people who found Manx farmers' food too expensive would simply buy from other farmers, whose food isn't.

Moron

 

....because the imported food is subsidised too, moron!

 

(good game this!)

 

New Zealand farm produce isn't subsidised. And anyway, my objection is that as a taxpayer I end up subsidising our farmers. I couldn't give a flying fuck if my food is nice and cheap as a result of some French/German/Japanese/American mug subsidising their farmers.

 

So you appear to have missed the point, moron

 

well look at it this way,

we stop subs fine, all the uk/manx farms close down, we import all our food from where ever cause its cheap cause its got subs on it,

 

whats the betting the price of that food will go up anyways cause the other places it comes from know full well that we have to buy it to get it, so we be willing to pay anything, as we cant feed ourselfs,

 

what about all the other subs that get paid out in the uk/iom, dont see u complaining about them,

should we stop dole/sickness/child benifit and all them,

why not stop all the companys that get paid a lot of cash to open companys in the island to help the work force,

 

maybe u can afford to pay sky high prices for food, but i bet you prob be the first to complain about the price,

 

what u dont seam to understand is that keeping food production costs down is a major concern for all goverments around the world,

with out them, the westen world would turn to anarchy, say half the uk cant affored to feed themselfs, because we have to import our food, we have no control on the price so thay can charge what thay want,

you think people would just go o well 1 part milk 2 parts bread for tea 2 night, no thay woulden, there would be mass riots, crime rate would go sky high, mass looting just to feed themselfs,(all ready happining in places that cant feed themselfs, cant affored to pay the prices to import it)

 

the sooner u take your head out of your ass and see that farms are paid subs to control the way we live the sooner u see why, insteard of moaning that i as a taxpayer have to pay for this and that, see the bigger pic in life and not your small minded little pic u have at the moment,

look outside your box,

 

and you ask any person in farming if thay like all the red tape lifted and be able to farm how thay like and charge what thay like, bet you 90% would say yes anyday,

least then thay may be able to earn a life,

[mollag]

So if we dont give farmers loadsa unearned money, civilisation as we know it will collapse, riots and stuff, hmmm---whose heads up whose ass here?

After the war[2nd] it was determined from lessons learned that the UK should be self sufficient in all things, food and fuel especially. Hence the coal and nuclear power stations. With the onset of the then common market and the abandonment of nuclear and coal production, this has destroyed the self sufficiency plan.

This is the IOM in minature, no chance self sufficient in any area. WE do not have the range of produce or manufacture , farmers grow not to feed an island rather to draw the most grant level, so bad is it we actually overproduce for our needs, why do they not diversify like a real market economy?

Cos the buckshee taxpayers money is mucho easier.

We have lost fishing because it was no longer viable, likewise tourism, farming if they cannot make it viable without the vast amounts of public money they presently get, should be allowed to go the same way.

[bluemonday]

Agreed.

[Alias]

New Zealand farm produce isn't subsidised. And anyway, my objection is that as a taxpayer I end up subsidising our farmers. I couldn't give a flying fuck if my food is nice and cheap as a result of some French/German/Japanese/American mug subsidising their farmers.

 

So you appear to have missed the point, moron

It's also on the other side of the world, sparsely populated (land prices massively different, which encourages larger-scale) and not neighboured by the subsidy-providing EU.

[keyboarder]

It isn't the most inspired exhibition of the agricultural community's gratitude. I'd have preferred a couple of complimentary lamb chops.

[mollag]

It isn't the most inspired exhibition of the agricultural community's gratitude. I'd have preferred a couple of complimentary lamb chops.

 

 

Yum

[Gladys]

Well, almost as a bit of poetic justice, did anyone else shop in Tesco today to find the shelves of fresh stuff very bare because there has been a hiccup on the Ben's sailings? That was just after one day's sailing malarkey, what would happen after a few days?

 

I didn't try Shoprite, and they may have been fully stocked, but it did make me wonder a little at just how we would cope if the supply was cut off for more than a couple of days, given that Tesco still, despite the stretch of water, seem to operate 'just in time' stock control.

 

Perhaps those more in control should require a stockpile of certain non-perishable essentials by all the supermarkets (well, the two we have) so that if something catastrophic happens we will, at least, be able to feed ourselves.

 

That then leads me to wonder if there is a disaster or contingency plan in place (not the sirens going off every three months), so that we have a buffer of fuel, essential foods and medicines etc should some unexpected event happen which stops direct supply from the UK, so we know we how to react and that we have the means to supply ourselves for the duration?

 

I am not being a doomsayer, but we are at the end of a supply 'cul de sac' and quite 'supply sensitive' so it would seem sensible to have some kind of provision. It all seems a bit fragile at the moment and I think we would all be reassured if we knew that there were plans to deal with the unexpected.

[Stu Peters]

What a relief to see a sensible post, well crafted and with top notch grammar employed throughout.

 

Thank you Gladys.

 

I had feared I'd fallen into a txt spk n8mare frm el. Or junior school remedial class.

[mollag]

Quite right Gladys, but the farms also cannot supply us at the drop of a hat either. It is the curse of modern Island living that a lifeline will always be tenuous, one of the reasons that Govt should have bought in years ago. I notice Mezaron has just been sold. That would have done nicely.

Our best example so far is the Seamans Strike of 66?, we coped ok, nobody starved it was very far from doomsday.

 

Yo Stu, is remedial class an American expresssion?

[jimbms]

What a relief to see a sensible post, well crafted and with top notch grammar employed throughout.

 

Thank you Gladys.

 

I had feared I'd fallen into a txt spk n8mare frm el. Or junior school remedial class.

Agreed. We can always count on Gladys to bring back sensibility and a high standard of grammar to posts.

[keyboarder]

Regardless of grammar one could always stock up on non perishables on one's own initiative you know, tins of whatever in the garage, cheeses and pickles in the shed, that sort of thing. We're in almost the same position as the rest of the UK really.

[mollag]

Does anyone have a tin of ham at the back of the shelf, my mam always had a tin of salmon planted in case any rich relatives called.

 

Tesco, god love em, are a very good grocer but it is wysiwyg with them, they carry their stock on the shelves. COOP, i think is similar wheras Shoprite have that huge warehouse opposite the power station to carry their non perishables. Robinsons do have warehousing but by the nature of their produce it wont last long.

For any doomsday scenario if bunkering shipments [embargo]were closed to the Island then the jig would be up anyway, we would have to leave. Likewise if we suddenly lost our "finance" industry as we did our fishing and tourism, then with nothing to replace them it would be bye bye also.

 

We are doing ok , could do better.