British Farming Post-Brexit

version

Well-known member
I've been seeing an increasing number of reports of fruit rotting on the vine due to a lack of seasonal workers and I'm scratching my head at what can be done. It's hard work, pays very little and isn't a viable long term option so British people don't really want to do it, but equally I don't believe an employer who can't afford to adequately pay their employees and who relies on exploiting migrants should be in business, plus they're struggling to hire migrants anyway in the wake of the Brexit vote.

I've seen people saying things like "well, we'll just have to pay more for our fruit so that farmers can pay proper wages and attract British workers" but that doesn't address the seasonal and physical nature of the work or the fact that plenty of people are too poor to have the luxury of choice when it comes to this stuff. If imports are cheaper then people will buy imports and the British producers will likely go out of business unless they can find a way to exploit British workers to a similar degree or the world suddenly decides to collectively stop exploiting migrant labour.

Automation seems the obvious answer, but that's still a way off yet so what can be done in the meantime? Are the DWP gonna start forcing benefit claimants into the fields? Prisoners? Are students going to be forced to pay off their debt by doing this stuff? Will the government start bringing in migrants from outside the EU to fill the vacancies? If so, how are they gonna spin that for the Brexit voters obsessed with immigration?
 

luka

Well-known member
Pattys done that recently. Most farms aren't organic and cuddly though. Just huge dirt factories.
 

martin

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Farmers are total savages. Staggering around drunk in scarecrow masks like the ‘Beast of Jersey’, blasting shotguns at anyone who walks near their fields, chopping up their 11-year old pregnant daughters to feed to the pigs, making foxes’ lives a misery, etc.

The way I see it, it’s their farms, so they can go and pick the fruit off the vine themselves. Probably wouldn’t even take them that long if they could stop playing with the artificial inseminator for 5 seconds.

Also, apart from pensioners, who eats cereal anymore? Fruit’s full of sugar so less of it will probably do Britain good.

It's their own fault for spending the past 15 years selling sprouts in some little Xmas stocking for £5 with a cardboard label with blurb about “Here at Sunnyvale Farms, counting eggs isn’t a chore: it’s our passion. In fact, you could say (and Millie the collie agrees), it’s an EGG-cellent way to build up a thirst for our organic cider”, instead of actually getting off their fat arses and picking fruit and castrating piglets, or whatever shit they’re whining they can’t find Poles to do for peanuts. Fuck the farms.
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
I read somewhere that the average farm clears something pathetic like two grand in actual profit a year and nearly all their total 'profit' comes from EU subsidies. And yet more than half of farmers voted to leave the EU. Crazy.

I wonder if it's the same in other EU countries? French farmers are said to be the biggest recipients by a mile. The CAP in general is a fucking nightmare and, if and when some sort of Brexit does happen, getting out of it will be a silver lining of sorts.
 

luka

Well-known member
fuck produce.

not literally.

lots of people hollow out grapefruits or melons into serviceable 'fruit vaginas' and 'fuck' them. Corpsey and Barty and me were discussing this the other day.
 

Leo

Well-known member
lots of people hollow out grapefruits or melons into serviceable 'fruit vaginas' and 'fuck' them. Corpsey and Barty and me were discussing this the other day.

what happens with cucumbers?
 

version

Well-known member
UK to quadruple quota for migrant farm workers - Sunday Telegraph

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain’s government will quadruple the annual immigration quota for seasonal farm workers to 10,000 from next year to tackle labour shortages in the sector after Brexit, the Sunday Telegraph newspaper reported.

Currently Britain allows 2,500 people from outside the European Union to work temporarily on British farms each year, a number that the sector says is too low. Many other farm workers come from poorer parts of the EU, and do not yet face a quota.

“Our immigration system should reflect the needs of the farming sector, and expanding and continuing the seasonal workers scheme will be an important part of that,” agriculture minister Theresa Villiers told the Sunday Telegraph.

The expansion will be formally announced as part of the Conservative Party’s campaign in the run-up to a national election on Dec. 12, the newspaper said.

https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-b...t-farm-workers-sunday-telegraph-idUKKBN1XJ0IJ
 

version

Well-known member
It's apparently awful work. You get paid fuck all, work long days, they force you to live on site and pay for accommodation and everything in the farm shop is overpriced.
 

luka

Well-known member
Probably would involve Tesco agreeing to pay more for it and passing the cost down to us. I think my solution is more elegant and efficient. And there are A LOT of people out of work now.

(This was a response to the post version just deleted about paying people a decent wage)
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
Yeah, I'm all for farm workers being paid a decent living wage but I don't really want to pay a tenner for a kilo of spuds.
 
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