What's going on down on the farm?

[cromwell]

The Conservative party claims to be supporting farmers.
Strange then that two years ago they set up a scheme to help farmers give up farming under their "Lump sum exit scheme".
Also strange that the current system of subsideies will be replaced by perfomance related payments based on "productivity, innovation and environmental management".
There is a good article in The Conservative Woman about this, pinting out what politicians and academics want to do to british farming. Link below.
https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/a-s ... he-farm-2/

Across Europe, farmers are protesting against changes to regulations and subsidy schemes. Smaller protests have spread through the UK – particularly in Wales, where thousands have turned out to air their grievances with the recent update to the Sustainable Farming Scheme (SFS).

This is the Welsh government’s proposed scheme to replace the EU’s common agricultural policy (CAP), which dedicated the majority of its budget to payments for every hectare of land managed. The new scheme aims to give farmers public money for public goods – in other words, pay farmers from the public purse for the ecosystem services they provide that aren’t remunerated through the sale of produce. These include carbon sequestration, the maintenance of habitats, and the preservation of cultural landmarks.

To receive payments from the new voluntary scheme, farmers must comply with 17 actions that are aimed at improving biodiversity and general farm management.

Farmers have taken particular exception to the requirement to have 10% of their land under tree cover. Typically, this will not include hedgerows, as the aim is to increase the size and number of woodlands on farms. On top of this, farmers will be required to manage 10% of their land for semi-natural habitat, such as species-rich grasslands. Organisations such as Coed Cadw (Woodland Trust Cymru) stress that tree cover on the average Welsh farm is already around 6-7%

So potentially Welsh farmers might have to remove 20% of their land from producing food.
At a time of soaring population, why would you reduce the food supply?

[Workingman]

The land management issue, provided that it does not become part of the built environment, does not worry me so much. Its use has always evolved and it can revert to being arable or grazing land if needed.

What worries me greatly is the headlong rush to "novel" foods.

By 2029 (five years from now), they aim to reduce beef and lamb consumption by 50 per cent. By 2030, they recommend that fertilisers are phased out, by 2050 all beef and lamb production should end and energy used to cook and transport food should be reduced by 60 per cent.

So, we get rid of cows and sheep and then what?

As of August 2023, four species – the house cricket, the larvae of the grain mould beetle, locusts, and the dried larvae of the flour beetle, have been approved as novel foods by the EU.

Delicious. Then there is another report from Sainsbuty's:

It predicts that from next year, 2025, Sainsbury’s expects to be growing micro and leafy greens hydroponically in store all year round. And. From 2025, to 2050 and 2169. The report says that in 30 years, jellyfish and other ‘invasive species’ could be found on the fish counter and there could be a ‘lab grown’ aisle, where people can pick up cultured meats and kits to grow meat at home: ‘Meat, as we know it today, could instead start to become a luxury product.’

I am glad I will not be around to see (eat) any of this.

[Suff]

We are heading for 10bn people. I don't know what everyone expects with that but to me it means a vegetarian diet and more reliance on protein from precision fermentation.

Gaza is a model here. They have 2.2m people. To feed them a basic vegetarian diet requires nearly 800sq km of arable land. Gaza is 360sq km 60% of which is built up.

This is the future of the world.

[Workingman]

We are heading for 10bn people.

Well, perhaps we should not be heading there, and for more reasons than food, such as drinking water, shelter, clothing, medical, education - the absolute necessities.

I have this crazy idea that we might try stalling the rise in human population and then, over a number of decades, reduce it down to something more manageable, say 6bn.

It will never happen as there is no money in it. So, it's bugburgers and slugbol all round with a side of seaweed.

This is the future of the world.

[cromwell]

Then there is another report from Sainsbuty's:

It predicts that from next year, 2025, Sainsbury’s expects to be growing micro and leafy greens hydroponically in store all year round. And. From 2025, to 2050 and 2169. The report says that in 30 years, jellyfish and other ‘invasive species’ could be found on the fish counter and there could be a ‘lab grown’ aisle, where people can pick up cultured meats and kits to grow meat at home: ‘Meat, as we know it today, could instead start to become a luxury product.’

I am glad I will not be around to see (eat) any of this.

Me too. As for eating insects, they contain chitin, and the jury is out as to whether that is good for you or not.

There is a theory that goes (and I stand to be corrected) that when farmland becomes a solar farm, it can be reclassified as "brownfield" and hence is more easy to build houses on.

[Workingman]

I have eaten locusts when they swarmed in Saudi / ME. where the locals literally scooped them up in their thawbs and then ripped the heads off and fried the rest.

They have mild taste, a bit 'shrimpy', and are not bad as a snack.

Chitin has its pro and anti followers - the jury is out.

The 'brownfield' issue seems to have legs. "Oh, it's not farmland anymore, let's build an estate on it - with affordable housing: obviously."

Yes, I am a huge cynic.

[Suff]

We are heading for 10bn people.

Well, perhaps we should not be heading there, and for more reasons than food, such as drinking water, shelter, clothing, medical, education - the absolute necessities.

I agree absolutely. Unfortunately the captains of industry and their political tools want a larger population to keep growing the economy...

Precision fermented beef for us, prime Limoges steak for them.