One by one, the giants are stumbling - legislators, bankers, press, even the Catholic Church. All have abused the trust placed in them. All have acted in self-interest, apparently immune to rules of morality, and sometimes the law. They did what they did because they could.

Who’s next? I believe there are some parallels in our food supply chain that should make us look closely at the ethics of our relationships and use of power.

A voluntary Grocery Code of Conduct appears to have failed at least UK dairy farmers, whose numbers have halved over the past 10 years. milk is cheaper than fizzy drinks, yet farmers must sell it for less than it costs to produce. The Adjudicator is now being imposed. Will it achieve some balance in the system?

Graig Producers is a collaborative marketing group of beef and sheep farmers. Our members choose their route to market through the Group, which finds the best market for the livestock. It supplies low-priced farming inputs, provides insurance against abattoir failure, lobbies on its members’ behalf and acts as a community for a rather lonely occupation. Processors pay GP, which pays its members.

However, in March, one major meat processor unilaterally imposed a system that sidelined farmers’ groups by insisting on paying all farmers direct.

In our view, this was a fundamental and unacceptable shift in power. In a survey, 98% of our members agreed. And at least one other major farmer-owned livestock marketing group has also stopped supplying the abattoir with cattle and lambs for the same reason. Wider support has come from a range of organisations with an interest in maintaining a vibrant rural economy.

So why has the abattoir taken this action? It has sent out a four-page contract form, gathering a huge amount of information from livestock farmers. It may use this data to select farmers, presumably large ones, with whom it could build ‘close’ relationships. According to our discussions with the abattoir, the rest of the livestock farming community, including co-ops and groups, could ‘fill in the gaps’. Now, where have we heard that before? This seems to me to have all the ingredients of a precursor to farm amalgamation, dairy-style. The abattoir wants to ensure numbers. Quite understandable, but why do it like this?

In many areas, beef and sheep farming is not just the only major enterprise available, it is the bedrock of the rural community and economy. However it appears no socio-economic research has been carried out evaluating these farmers’ contributions to their local rural economies.

Will the Grocery Code Adjudicator have any jurisdiction on this? My understanding is not as currently drafted - hopefully that will change. For farmers, collaboration really can achieve economies of scale and other benefits, but it needs commitment. A genuine collaboration can also reap huge benefits along the supply chain, but we must have a more widespread ethical base to our relationships.

Surely we need at least to debate this before further potential damage is done to our rural communities, and another giant stumbles?

Topics