FOOD PRODUCTION STRIKE IMMINENT!

Farmers For Action are calling for a national strike by UK food producers on Friday 23 August.

This strike will commence at 12 midnight, Thursday 22nd August and run through until midnight of the 23rd August. It to highlight the disastrous situation that is now surrounding British food production. We are calling on all farmers in the UK and Ireland to abide by this 24-hour token strike. No one at present appears to be listening to what is happening to British food production. If we do not bring awareness to the general public, government and all other bodies that represent farming, our industry will be extinct by 2010.

The farming community will be asked not to sell any product produced on their farm within this 24-hour period. This will include dairy farmers, livestock farmers, egg producers, fruit, vegetable and arable farmers. We will be asking all Farmers Markets not to operate on this day. We will ask all livestock markets not to operate on this day.

If we are not listened to we intend to escalate this action over the coming months. Plans are already afoot for action throughout the autumn and winter period. We will be calling on all of the 128 so called bodies that speak on behalf of agriculture to back this strike.

As farmers we are fully aware of the tragic situation that is taking place on the African continent with the famine that is taking thousands of lives weekly. Therefore on the day of this strike we are asking every farmer or associated industry to make a donation to our campaign - Food For Africa. There is a parallel to be drawn from these two situations and the British consumer must be made aware of how fragile food production is in the UK. It is on a knife-edge at the moment. We hope that we will have their support, we do not wish to cause disruption but we are on the precipice of extinction and no one is listening. The cheap food basket could end up actually destroying the hand that feeds it.

We hope members will give us full support for this strike action. We will be talking with other unions associated with our industry over the coming weeks in the build up to the first national farmers strike to hopefully gain their support. Governments must now listen.

Food is the commodity of life, somewhere within Westminster people seem to have forgotten this. Recently Mrs Beckett, head of DEFRA is reported to have said in a bid for the moral highground, that trade liberalisation would be worth billions of pounds to developing countries. Our question to Mrs Beckett - if this is the case why have we got mass death in Africa?

David Handley

As published on www.FWi.co.uk Comments would be appreciated - Unsurprising reaction from NFU and the Farmers Markets we know of are used by hobby farmers and not genuine hardup farmers.

A NATIONAL one-day strike has been called by British farmers to highlight the "disastrous" situation faced by food producers. Dairy farmers, livestock farmers and arable growers will be asked not to sell any produce for 24 hours on Friday, 23 August.
Farmers' markets will be asked not to operate and livestock marts will be asked to remain closed.
The strike was called by Monmouthshire farmer David Handley, leader of the Farmers For Action pressure group.
Mr Handley is the man who spearheaded nationwide fuel protests and blockades which almost halted Britain two years ago.
"No one at present appears to be listening to what is happening to British food production," Mr Handley said.
"If we do not bring awareness to the general public, government and all other bodies that represent farming, our industry will be extinct."
Mr Handley said there were parallels to be drawn between the slump in incomes experienced by British farmers and food shortages in Africa.
"As farmers we are fully aware of the tragic situation that is taking place on the African continent with the famine that is taking thousands of lives weekly," he said.
"On the day of this strike we are asking every farmer or associated industry to make a donation to our campaign - Food For Africa."
Mr Handley said he hoped other organisations would support the strike, including 128 bodies that speak on behalf of agriculture.
But a spokeswoman for the National Farmers' Union said: "We think this is an extremely risky strategy that could seriously backfire."
Such action could damage the relationship with buyers and lead to long-term financial losses for the farmers concerned, she added.
"If it results in a single extra French apple or Argentinian steak on British supermarket shelves because they can't get hold of home-grown food then it will have done more harm than good."
James Pavitt, co-ordinator of the National Association of Farmers' Markets, said his organisation had not been contacted by Mr Handley.
"We have some sympathy with the aim to raise the plight of British farming with the general public.
"But we haven't been consulted about the strike and we have some concerns that the closure of farmers' markets even for one day would have a bad effect."
Farmers' markets were a positive reaction to hardship in agriculture and closing them would send shoppers into other retail outlets, Mr Pavitt said.
"We are unlikely to be recommending to our members that they join the strike," he added.

Lawrence adds this:

David's linking of famine in the third world with the enthusiasm of our government to import all our food strikes a chord with me. As I milk the sheep for hours on end, I remember the remarks of Mrs Beckett, Lord Haskins and Lord Donoghue - to the effect that the nation no longer needs the food that British farmers produce because we can import all the food we need.

I wonder too how this notion can be reconciled with the famine and poverty in the countries these "socialists" want to take their food from.

Is it, perhaps that they [and their sponsors], have, like President Mugabe, realised the importance of controlling the food supply? Without home grown food, our food supply can more easily be controlled... - and if you think that interfering with the food supply would rebound on the perpetrators, remember how the FMD experience shows that the grossest actions of the government can be glossed over with spin.

In the background, we have been told that Tyson Foods Inc. now controls the American [and effectively the World] market in meat. [One American commentator ascribed the UK FMD outbreak to action initiated by Tyson Foods in their takeover of IBP, which would give them 40% of the US meat market. The takeover was successfully accomplished in July last year.] Seed patents apart, what effective choice for sources of seed have UK arable farmers now? As GM penetration and patent controls are extended, the grip of the large corporations will tighten...

Lawrence