Opinion: Farmers should resist Red Tractor’s latest move
© Tim Scrivener I wasn’t surprised Red Tractor’s recent plan for a Greener Farms Commitment (GFC) went down like a lead balloon with farmers. The proposal was that, from April 2024, it would be an “optional” bolt-on.
But we all know from experience these things are never optional for long, and during inspections you will be made to feel guilty for choosing not to do the “optional” elements.
The opposition was so strong from farmers that Red Tractor made a sharp u-turn, announcing it wouldn’t implement any new standards or additional modules until an NFU review had been completed.
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A handy delay tactic, I suspect, to push the GFC through anyway and try to get farmers back on their side.
For too long we have let bodies of experts tell us how to do our jobs.
From animal husbandry to record-keeping, there is always someone who can tell us we are doing it wrong, instruct us how to improve, then pop off back to their cosy, centrally-heated office.
Aside from the added paperwork, stress and expense of producing biodiversity plans, soil management documents and whatever else is on the ever-lengthening list of requirements, it’s the added levels of bureaucracy that get me.
The GFC requires the creation of a Dedicated Advisory Panel (DAP), which will report to the Red Tractor Standards Committee and will include representatives from the six Technical Advisory Committees (TAC).
I feel I should also give a shout out to the eight Sector Boards, the management team and The Board of Directors, just so no one feels left out.
That’s quite a lot of management tiers by anyone’s standards. Talk about jobs for the boys (or girls).
How much does all this cost? Who is going to pay for the new DAP? I don’t think any of us will be happy to pay more in farmer fees for another bunch of pen-pushers so far removed from life on an actual farm.
It’s not the remit of Red Tractor to be collecting sustainability data. The majority of dairy farmers already complete carbon audits for various supermarket contracts, handing over swathes of valuable information.
It’s time we woke up and realised that we are only increasing the profitability of the big retailers in our bid to tick all the boxes.
Sustainability is becoming the new stick to beat us with. It will inevitably end up as the only way we can get our product to market.
Red Tractor already has the monopoly there, certainly in dairy anyway; we can’t get our milk collected unless we’re assured. They are trying to put themselves in a position to hold us all to ransom.
Farmers have had enough of being dictated to, enough of selling our products for less than they cost to produce, and enough of taking whatever is thrown at us.
If we are put under much more pressure we might as well just let the whole lot rewild itself. Maybe that’s the plan? An overgrown wasteland with wolves roaming free.
The likes of George Monbiot and Ben Goldsmith would certainly be happy, but I’m pretty sure even they would still find something wrong.
They might even find themselves on Red Tractor’s next committee – The Committee for Rewilding Agricultural Property (CRAP).