I don’t know about you, but I think that if I was asked to write a few hundred words for a newspaper, I’d take great care to ensure that they made sense. Because space was limited, I’d send my best arguments into battle. And I would make damn sure that they were watertight.
That was not the case when the shadow minister for insulting the public’s intelligence, Daniel Zeichner, tried to sell Labour policy in a short piece for the Telegraph.
Now, Labour policy statements are a target-rich environment. You basically just fly over them & press the red button and you’re bound to hit something that explodes nicely. So it was with Zeichner’s try. Except with extra parsnips.
Ostensibly Zeichner was there to explain Labour’s plan for farming. (He’s actually the shadow minister for farming, not insulting the public’s intelligence.) Instead he produced the sort of screed that I characterise as “Wall of Sh1t”, in homage to Phil Spector’s Wall of Sound. This rhetorical technique is the bane of anyone trying to respond to it, because the response has such trouble getting its shoes on. It is known in some people’s minds as Gish galloping.
ASTERISK: Spector shot Lana Clarkson, and was eventually sent to jail. Divers other accusations were levelled at him. He apparently died of Covid.
Zeichner’s opening paragraphs set the scene by trying to draw a line between climate change, inclement weather, and food shortages. Last year was the hottest on record, and food inflation reached 45%. Draw a line, ingrate!
Last year’s summer harvests were threatened by drought, and this winter’s heavy rain and flooding has destroyed crops. This perfect storm has left shortages in our supermarket shelves and driven up prices.
Well, it’s not exactly a perfect storm. What actually happened last year in the UK, whose farming Zeichner will one day soon be responsible for?
The unseasonably wet and windy weather hindered the start of the harvest, with further disruption throughout August due to localised showers and heavy downpours, with progress varying regionally. Whilst conditions were milder in September, some regions still had lengthy periods of wet weather.
Defra
Yes, in fact the hot and dry summer was 2022’s, but looking at the figure, I don’t see a reduction in yield then. A miserable summer in 2023 on the other hand meant that grains did not dry out fully and were poorer quality.
Not a great start, but then Zeichner segues into a version of reality that I don’t recognise at all.
Meanwhile, this Tory Government flip-flops and backtracks on net zero, failing to recognise the cost of inaction. Labour will protect families from unaffordable food by backing British agriculture, supporting farmers to reduce emissions and make their land more resilient to the shocks of extreme weather.
Well, the first bit is flat out wrong. Sunak and his chums have not flip-flopped and backtracked on Net Zero. Later on (see below), Zeichner says:
The Tories are U-turning on net zero while the climate crisis knocks at our doors.
But the allegation is unsubstantiated. How, exactly, are the government U-turning, flip-flopping, or backtracking? I wish they were. I’ve waited for a sign that they might. Sunak’s “great reset” was as much an insult to our intelligence as Zeichner’s description of it is. There was no U-turn. There was not even a turn. It was as if Sunak was driving in one of those cars that have a motorised steering wheel. Drifting towards the white line, the car politely but firmly pushed him back where he was supposed to be pointing. He stayed in the lane he began in, heading in exactly the same direction, having made a giant fuss about doing nothing. And the reset was over, vanished utterly in moments, with not even a dreg to corroborate it ever having been.
Labour will protect families from expensive food by…? Can you remember what their spokesman said? One, by backing British agriculture. Quite meaningless, I hope you’ll agree. Two, supporting farmers to reduce emissions. How is this supposed to make food cheaper? How are those electric tractors, which obviously cost more and do half as much work as the existing ones, going to make food cheaper? How is reducing the input of fertiliser going to make food cheaper? If Labour want to reduce farm emissions, it will make food more expensive. But Zeichner blandly argues it the opposite way around, as if no-one will notice. Three, make their land more resilient to the shocks of extreme weather. How, exactly? How do you make a field of wheat resistant to a thunderstorm?
There follows some stuff about farm payments. It would be fair to say that I have lost track of the state of play on these. I followed the debate for a time after Brexit, but have to admit that my eyes eventually glazed over. It’s a bit like live animal exports. About two decades ago I developed the idea that it had been banned after some horror stories brought the matter to the public’s attention. Recently I discovered that it had been going on unchecked all that time. It is now finally going to be banned.
We must also decarbonise the farming sector. That is why Labour will switch on Great British Energy, a new publicly owned company that will bring together public and private investment to harness clean home-grown British power: wind, wave, solar and nuclear. That means cheaper bills for our farmers.
We must also support farmers as they diversify their income streams and make use of land that is not suitable for food production – by enabling them to build renewable energy and plug into the National Grid faster.
“Must” we decarbonise the farming sector? Only if we want to partake like it’s 1799. And let us not bear this pretense that the proliferation of renewables is going to make anyone’s bills cheaper. (There may be bribes for some of us.) Perhaps Zeichner might like to consider how his party’s plan to triple, or is it quadruple, solar on prime agricultural land is going to increase food security or decrease food bills? No, we can’t go there. No-one of importance is willing to bell that particular cat.
Zeichner winds up with gusto, as if he is talking to the faithful at the party conference:
The Tories are U-turning on net zero while the climate crisis knocks at our doors. They are rowing back on climate commitments while our farmers’ fields are waterlogged and inaccessible. And they are stalling on protecting nature and farmland while family food bills go through the roof.
Labour is the party that will deliver for rural Britain. Our plan will protect the land, support farmers and bring down bills. With Labour, Britain’s rural communities will get their future back.
Pah. Your plan does not protect the land. It involves carpeting it with solar farms, wind turbines and pylons. Your idea of supporting farmers is to force them to reduce inputs and into the use of inferior technology. Rather than bring down bills, you are going to force them up.
This does not promise that rural communities will get their future back. It more likely presages the entire country getting its past back. But I’m not talking about going back to last year, or two decades ago. I’m talking about going back two hundred years, unless someone cries
“Enough!”
The country is getting battered by the incumbent Conservatives, and Labour’s offer is a bigger stick and a lusty arm.
Climate Scepticism 
Jit,
We must have been thinking in parallel today. Watch this space for a piece by me about expensive renewable energy and the gaslighting we are subjected to in an attempt to persuade us it’s cheap. Watching Cliscep for new articles is like waiting for a bus. You wait for ages, then two come along at once.
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By the way, on the substantive point, I am in despair regarding Labour, once the party of choice for me when I headed into the polling booth. Listening to David Lammy on the radio earlier was equally depressing.
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God help us. The frog was nicely boiling in the pan and the public were blissfully being misled (aka misinformed, disinformed, uninformed) about the costs and benefits of the great planet saving decarbonisation agenda. Then May’s Tories and Johnson’s Tories came along and pushed the red button on Net Zero. The frog jumped out of the saucepan and into the frying pan. Now New Improved Greenest Labour are here and we watch aghast as the frog prepares to jump out of the frying pan and into the fire. Burnt, dead frog is all that we have to look forward to it would seem.
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Well, to mangle another metaphor, at some point the wheels will come off the bus, at which point we will no longer be driving towards the edge of the cliff.
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Seems like an interesting debate is being initiated in the Telegraph, far from the view of 95% of the electorate, but in full view of the decision-making establishment, and of the rural Tory heartlands.
We do things differently here in France. The fervently pro-European French media largely ignored recent farmers’ protests that brought Holland, Poland & now Germany to the edge of revolution. Now farmers protesting against government & EU policies have blocked a minor motorway in the Deep South & sprayed manure on a local government office, & Macron’s government is facing a major crisis.
What’s been fascinating is how a crisis takes the discussion out of the hands of “experts” and returns it to the politicians – in other words, how it reinstalls democracy. Everyone loves a “paysan” (farmer, not peasant) which is why the hardline Minister of the Interior has promised not to intervene when they trash a MacDonalds or set fire to a government building.
And politicians are forced to defend their policies 24/24 on TV, with Greens attacking the power of the multinational lobbies, the Left criticising the stranglehold of agro-business on the food chain, the Right criticising the insanity of Green EU environmental directives, and me agreeing with all of them.
Meanwhile the tractors are heading for Paris, and no-one gives a croissant for the carbon-reducing directives issued by Brussels.
It’s not democracy as the editorialists at the Guardian or Telegraph understand it, but it’s a helluva lot more entertaining than an opinion piece by a Labour Party spokesman.
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It looks as though the angry European farmer stories may run and run:
“France farmer protests: PM offers key concessions after roads around Paris blocked”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-68104202
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“Why Europe’s farmers are taking their anger to the streets”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-68095097
By BBC standards it’s a fairly comprehensive report that covers many of the issues. The elephant in the room – policies that are net zero/climate related – however, are played down, and net zero/climate don’t get a mention, other than – almost incredibly, given the context – a reference to the problems of farmers in southern Europe:
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Jit,
The Guardian puts you right….
“Move to sustainable food systems could bring $10tn benefits a year, study finds
Existing production destroys more value than it creates due to medical and environmental costs, researchers say”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/jan/29/sustainable-food-production-economic-benefits-study
£7.9 trillion p.a.! It’s so easy.
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Meanwhile, back in the real world…:
“Operation Starve Paris: French Farmers Begin “Indefinite” Tractor Siege to Protest Crippling Net Zero Policies as it’s Warned City Only has Three Days of Food”
https://dailysceptic.org/2024/01/29/operation-starve-paris-french-farmers-begin-indefinite-tractor-siege-to-protest-crippling-net-zero-policies-as-its-warned-city-only-has-three-days-of-food/
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BBC news at 6 covered it tonight, to be fair they let a spokesman for the farmers mention mad/damaging green policies at the end.
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Mark, the BBC’s coverage asks whether green policies could benefit farmers… you will not be surprised to find out that according to the BBC, yes, green policies can benefit farmers. Having said that, their coverage is fairly even-handed. Not only that, but tales of the far right are notable by their almost complete absence – one throwaway line about how they tried to piggy-back on the protests or something and that’s it. A refreshing change.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-europe-68126373
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Dougie, that makes two of us not entirely unimpressed by the BBC coverage, posting at almost the same moment.
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“EU to delay new green rule in bid to appease protesting farmers
Delay to rules on setting aside land to encourage biodiversity offered as concession amid continuing protests”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/jan/31/eu-delays-biodiversity-rules-amid-rising-protests-from-farmers
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There’s more:
“‘Hypocritical’ European politicians weaken climate policies amid farmer protests
Ajit Niranjan
European environment correspondent
Under pressure from the far right in upcoming elections, environmental concessions being made across continent”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/jan/31/hypocritical-european-politicians-weaken-climate-policies-amid-farmer-protests
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They Just have to trot out “– cheered on by the far right –” instead of what it is – populist –
(ADJECTIVE – relating to or characteristic of a political approach that strives to appeal to ordinary people who feel that their concerns are disregarded by established elite groups)
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“Why are farmers protesting across the EU and what can the bloc do about it?
Food producers say increasing costs, tiny margins and climate policies leave livelihoods in peril”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/feb/02/why-are-farmers-protesting-across-the-eu-and-what-can-the-bloc-do-about-it
Despite recognising “climate policies” as being part of the problem, the article turns that on its head, and says this:
It’s the nasty public wanting cheap food, not climate-friendly EU policies, that are the problem – apparently.
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“Victory for Europe’s farmers as Brussels caves in on emissions targets and eating less meat
Ursula von der Leyen offers further concession by dropping her controversial proposal to halve pesticide use within six years”
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/02/06/victory-europe-protesting-farmers-brussels-eu-back-down/
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The BBC has the story too:
“Europe farmers protests: EU scraps plans to halve pesticide use”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-68218907
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“Farming: Unions warn unrest and protest is inevitable”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-68232236
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“Beef cattle carbon emissions scheme ‘could disadvantage us’ – farmer”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-68241023
I don’t know who’s right. But if Mr Blair is right, it certainly wouldn’t be the first time that state intervention achieves the opposite of what is intended.
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“‘They’re drowning us in regulations’: how Europe’s furious farmers took on Brussels and won”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/feb/10/theyre-drowning-us-in-regulations-how-europes-furious-farmers-took-on-brussels-and-won
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“Carmarthen: Farmers disrupt A48 traffic with go-slow protest”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-68320579
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“The farmers’ revolt comes to Wales
Welsh Labour’s green policies are making farming impossible.”
https://www.spiked-online.com/2024/02/20/the-farmers-revolt-comes-to-wales/
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Ever reliable:
“What’s going on in Wales? Real farmers duped by ‘outrage’ farmers, and a clueless Sunak along for the ride
George Monbiot”
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/feb/28/wales-farming-environment-sunak-protest
I very much doubt that’s true. Anywhere above 2,000′ and most trees would be stunted weedy things at best.
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“The fury of Europe’s farmers
The continent-wide revolt against the green agenda has shaken the EU elites to their core.”
https://www.spiked-online.com/2024/04/01/the-fury-of-europes-farmers/
“Europe’s farmers are rising up – and the elites are terrified. In France, farmers recently staged a four-day ‘siege of Paris’, blocking major roads around the French capital. In January, thousands of tractors descended on Berlin in Germany, lining the streets leading up to the Brandenburg Gate. In Brussels, farmers have gathered from all over Europe to demonstrate against the EU and pelt the European Parliament with eggs. In the Netherlands, tractors have caused the longest traffic jam in the nation’s history, as part of a years-long battle between farmers and the government. This farmers’ revolt is now truly Europe-wide. From Portugal to Poland, from Ireland to Italy, almost every EU country has been rocked by protests. So what is driving this populist uprising? What do the farmers want?
Farmers in each country have their own specific grievances, of course. But there is a common root to their anger. What connects them is the European Union’s green agenda, which has been imposed on agriculture from on-high. It has made farmers’ lives a misery, sacrificing their livelihoods at the altar of climate alarmism. Bureaucrats who have no idea how farmers work and live, have essentially been condemning farms – many of them run by families for generations – to oblivion, all at the stroke of the regulator’s pen. And farmers are simply not putting up with it anymore.…
But the protests aren’t going to stop anytime soon. How could they? These concessions, though welcome, do not go nearly far enough. The green agenda is diametrically opposed to the interests of agriculture. So long as European politicians are committed to Net Zero, then the farmers will always be in their sights. What’s more, the farmers’ cause will continue to resonate with ordinary people, who are also served poorly by their environmentalist leaders, whose policies are pushing up prices and obliterating food and energy security. The farmers are merely the canaries in the coalmine. They were just the first group of people to be pushed to breaking point – and to get organised in response.
The farmers offer a cautionary tale to Europe’s rulers. The green elites assumed that farmers would take their bitter medicine. They had no idea just how devastating their regulations would be to farmers’ way of life. They failed to see the human beings behind the emissions figures on their spreadsheets. And the broader push for Net Zero could soon generate much more resistance, from a much broader section of society. After all, under the current plans, our energy bills are set to soar, as we replace reliable fossil fuels with unreliable renewables. Our trusty gas boilers could soon be ripped out, replaced with expensive and inefficient heat pumps. Older, cheaper vehicles are being banned or taxed off the road in the push towards electric cars. Yet again, the establishment seems to think it can change our way of life and shred our living standards without a peep of discontent. This is bound to provoke an almighty backlash. And the farmers have shown us the way.
Long may the farmers’ revolt continue. And here’s hoping it inspires many more people to take a stand.“
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If the ground is too hard, try growing stuff on the ocean.
“Norwich firm creating world’s first ocean agriculture system”
This frankly delusional idea involves creating miniature islands of genetically-engineered rice which somehow magically won’t be a hundred times more expensive than ordinary rice.
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“Farmers rebel against plant-based council plan”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cz7e88rz3wko
Farmers have fought back against a proposal to switch a council in Devon to plant-based catering and encourage a shift to plant-based farming.
The plan was condemned as “idiotic” and “a slap in the face for farmers” at a North Devon Council meeting on Wednesday.
Ricky Knight, a Green Party councillor who put forward the motion, said he wanted “to address the problems of climate change”.
The proposal was heavily defeated with all members voting against except for Mr Knight and his Green Party colleague who seconded the motion….
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“Frustration after National Grid ‘bulldozes’ crops”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cvg4p80kx9vo
A farmer has spoken of his frustration after National Grid dug up a field two days before a barley crop was due to be harvested.
Richard Langton, of Langton Farms in Little Wenham, Suffolk, said he made an agreement with National Grid so they could work on his land with 48 hours’ notice – and after the harvest.
Seven of his fields are likely to be disrupted by the Tilbury to Norwich pylon scheme, causing the fields to become “devalued”, he said.
A spokesperson for National Grid said the agreement was “not communicated to the survey team” and it would compensate for any crops lost.
National Grid wants to install a 114-mile (184km) power line of pylons stretching from south Norwich to Tilbury in Essex, to carry electricity generated from offshore windfarms….
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‘Compensate’? You can’t eat money! Any half-wit could have seen that the crop was mature and ready to be harvested. You would think that they might have at least made a phone call before sending the bulldozers in. This looks like deliberate destruction of a food crop. How many mouths would that field of barley have fed?
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Jaime,
Net zero cares about UK food security about as much as it does about energy security. The end justifies the means!
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Aerial views of affected field shown on local TV news program. Only two square areas of crop affected, not the entire field. Size of the squares likely to be that of the footprint of the future pylons. Nevertheless an act of stupidity and crass indifference to the farm owner.
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I should have added that the two squares of destroyed crops were close together but somewhat offset to each other. If indeed they mark sites of future pylons, then their positioning relative to each other may well indicate two closely spaced lines of pylons parallel to each other are contemplated, with each pylon offset from that of its neighbouring pylon line. A double whammy to the area’s appearance.
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“AgriFood4NetZero: Plausible Pathways, Practical and Open Science for Net Zero Agrifood”
Recipient of a £4 million grant from UKRI. Here is the abstract – I wonder how it reads if you substitute “unicorn farming” for Net Zero?
The obvious point is that Net Zero is not compatible with sustainable agriculture in the sense of agriculture that is supposed to actually feed a large number of people. Never mind! We’ll run some crucibles, whatever they are supposed to be, and produce pointless output alleging that progress has been made, and recommending further investment. Ta for the 4 mil.
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Jit – from the website “People” tab –
Angelina Sanderson Bellamy (Principal Investigator)
Nigel Scollan (Co-Investigator)
Lynn Frewer (Co-Investigator)
Simon Pearson (Co-Investigator)
Tom MacMillan (Co-Investigator)
Neil Ward (Co-Investigator)
Peter Smith (Co-Investigator)
Christine Watson (Co-Investigator)
Timothy Benton (Co-Investigator)
Sarah Bridle (Co-Investigator)
Dimitris Charalampopoulos (Co-Investigator)
So that’s 11 at least “Investigators” to give us in the UK this sage advice –
“The agri-food system, producing 23% of UK emissions, must play a key role in the UK’s transition to net zero by 2050, and through leadership in innovation can support change globally.”
So much other “to get the money spout B/S, It pays our wages” I could comment on, but salaries are not published AFAIK, so maybe the all work for nothing to save the planet.
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UK farming’s ‘net zero’ climate target in doubt
The BBC is unaware, or unwilling to admit, that Net Zero farming is an oxymoron. All the other organisations mentioned are on the same page.
H’mm.
Perhaps there is a way to Net Zero farming: we use equines as tractor engines, equine **** as fertiliser, equine-drawn carts for road transport and grow oats on half the land. Any livestock farms with supplementary feeding that isn’t hay will have to go, I think. Yields will plummet without artificial fertiliser and pesticides. But what a bucolic scene! And the weather would be just perfect.
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Oops!
“Cows help farms capture more carbon in soil, study shows
Research also reveals that a mixture of arable crops and cattle helps improve the biodiversity of the land”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/sep/28/cows-help-farms-capture-more-carbon-in-soil-study-shows
Cows may belch methane into the atmosphere at alarming rates, but new data shows they may play an important role in renewing farm soil.
Research by the Soil Association Exchange shows that farms with a mixture of arable crops and livestock have about a third more carbon stored within their soil than those with only arable crops, thanks to the animals’ manure.
This also has an effect on biodiversity: mixed arable and livestock farms support about 28 grassland plant species in every field, compared with 25 for arable-only and 22 for dairy-only.
Joseph Gridley, chief executive of SAE, which was set up by the Soil Association in 2021 to support and measure sustainable farming, said it was unlikely that carbon captured in soil would balance out the enormous amounts of methane created by cattle. Farm livestock around the world creates about 14% of human-induced climate emissions.
“It’s pretty unequivocal in the data that having livestock on your farm does mean you have more emissions – five or six times more emissions,” he said. “But if you integrate livestock into the system, on every metric on soil health, there’s an improvement, and on a lot of the biodiversity measures as well.”…
What a dilemma!
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Wow, ‘new’ research by ‘experts’ reveals what farmers have known for thousands of years.
Real progress!
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As I commented over there, this did rather fly under the radar, mostly because there was so much within the radar. I was thinking of a post covering this topic.
Here you can find the gov’ts response to their consultation on CBAM.
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Also, all the reports and documents published alongside the budget (there are a lot) can be found on this page. I have yet to scratch the surface. CBAM was the first thing I looked at a few days ago. It was mentioned somewhere (maybe on the Daily Politics).
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Regarding CBAM, data on fertiliser inputs are available on this page. There’s also data on imports and exports of cereals at the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board. This shows that this year we were net importers of wheat, to the tune of 2 million tonnes.
With the area of croppable land being pinched, and the threat of CBAM pushing up the costs of fertilisers, we can expect import demands to go up. That’s all good when food is cheap globally. What happens when it isn’t?
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Tim Black at Spiked:
“Labour’s Net Zero zealotry is a threat to our food security”
He notes that taking 10% of farmland out of production is rather a dim idea.
A problem for this small island is that you can’t use the same land for several different things at once: crops, reafforestation, solar farms and sprawling housing estates.
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“Green scheme closure a ‘shattering blow’ to farms, says union”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx2gp9lyx5xo
Farmers may turn their backs on environmental work for more intensive food production after the government suddenly closed a green funding scheme, the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) has warned.
The Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI), which pays farmers in England to manage land to protect soil, restore hedgerows and boost nature recovery, was a key part of the post-Brexit payment scheme that replaced EU subsidies.
The government said SFI had been a success, with 37,000 funding agreements agreed, but it would not accept any new applications. No replacement has been announced.
Tom Bradshaw, NFU president, said that it was “another shattering blow to English farms”….
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