Farmers warn food security ‘really under threat’ amid supermarket protest

Farmers in Kent are stationing their tractors in a supermarket car park to protest against cheap imports and “win over” the British public.

Around 20 tractors are parked at Tesco Extra in Whitfield, near Dover, to raise awareness of the threat to food security in the UK, because of the “unfair” treatment of British farmers.

The collective action comes after a group of farmers staged a go-slow protest around the Port of Dover on Friday February 9.

Speaking to FarmingBritain.tv ahead of the protest on Saturday, livestock and potato farmer Jeff Gibson said the single message within their concerns is sustainability.

Mr Gibson said: “British farmers can’t compete with cheap foreign imports and we’re going to be left in a situation where we cannot feed the British public.

“The biggest problem we’re going to face as an industry and the British public in future years is, what happens in the next crisis, what happens in the next Covid, what happens in the next Ukraine war?

“We need to make people realise that food security in this country is really under threat.

 

Anahita Hossein-Pour | Belfast Telegraph

 

Farmers – culling of healthy pigs criminal

Farmers in East Yorkshire are warning they could be forced out of business if the government doesn’t do more to boost staff numbers in the supply chain.

It comes as a lack of abattoir workers meant 10,000 pigs were culled in the region in the run-up to Christmas.

Without abattoirs to process the pigs, farms simply run out of space to keep them, resulting in the culls.

East Riding of Yorkshire Council was told those staff shortages were fuelled by Brexit, with many workers returning to their home countries.

Sisters Kate Moore and Vicky Scott, who run a pig farm in Driffield, have called the action “criminal.”

Kate said: “It’s a disgrace that 35,000 across Great Britain have been killed on farm and wasted. It’s a complete waste. It’s criminal what has happened.”

The sisters would normally sell around 90,000 pigs a year. They are contracted to a certain number of pigs to go to slaughter every week. But currently those contracts are not being taken due to the staff shortages. They are down 30%, losing between £25 to £30 per pig.

“We’re the ones who are suffering financially and emotionally. The farmers are taking the hit in every way”, said Vicky.

“We are suffering massively through no fault of our own and the government have to be held responsible for that.”

 

 

by Amelia Beckett / ITV

 

 

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