The National Farmers'
Union (NFU)
Profile
By
Corporate Watch UK
Completed July 2003
Why the poor eyesight?
a) The NFU’s corporate friends
The NFU is suffering from an identity crisis. It believes that
representing the farming sector means that it should represent the
interests of the agro-chemicals companies, big food
processors, corporate-owned single commodity farms and
supermarkets as well as small, mixed and organic farms.
Many would consider that these big corporations are working
against the interests of small and family farms and the long term
economic and environmental sustainability of farming worldwide and
that one organisation cannot effectively represent their very
different interests.
Investments
Perhaps the most blatant example of this ‘identity crisis’
is the revelation that the NFU has an investment portfolio valued at
£30 million which includes shares in five biotechnology
companies, including Monsanto, as well as Tesco and Barclay's Bank.
The choice of Tesco is particularly controversial given complaints
by farmers about treatment by supermarkets. Barclay's bank has also
been heavily criticised for having closed 300 rural branches across
Britain; deeply affecting the viability of rural communities.
The NFU insists that these shares were
purchased purely on a financial basis, but many would
question this assertion, especially as regards its
investment in the the biotech sector. This is certainly not considered
a safe and secure financial investment in the current climate. In
any case, these investments show huge insensitivity to the fate of
farmers and communities, and are incompatible with the NFU's
presentation of itself as a body that can speak impartially about GM
technology.
Links with biotechnology and agrochemical/ agro-industrial
companies
In addition to the NFU investing in biotechnology companies, several
key council members have conducted government sponsored GM farm-scale
trials on their land. It is likely that they were paid around
£10,000 for each trial planted. See
'Examples of NFU policies'.
The NFU’s vision for the future of farming certainly involves
big corporations. Part of this includes diversification into non-food
crops, such as bio-fuels (willow, oilseed rape and
miscanthus), ethanol and fibres. The NFU sits alongside DuPont, Cargill
and Syngenta and others on the Alternative Crop Technology
Interaction Network (ACTIN). The
involvement of corporations like these in US farming has reduced
many farmers to contract growers depedent on a single corporation
for their seed, chemical inputs, processing and selling.
In response to government proposals for a pesticide tax aimed
at reducing pesticide use, the NFU teamed up with pesticide
manufacturers to oppose the plan (see 'Examples of NFU policies').
Getting cosy with the supermarkets and major food processors
The most serious long-term issue facing farmers is that of falling farmgate
prices. Sometimes the prices paid for produce by the
supermarkets and big food processors are less than it costs the farmer
to produce them. As with any business, farmers cannot keep on going
if they can't make a living (although some will go on until every
penny is spent), and many farmers are being forced to abandon their
farms and their way of life because farm gate prices are so low. The
reason why the big food multinationals can force down the price they
pay to farmers is because they are global in scope and can play farmers
off against each other around the world. As there are relatively few
food multinationals compared to the billion or so farmers worldwide,
they are in a position to set the world prices and tie farmers into a
position where if they don't accept the prices they will not be
able to sell their produce elsewhere. (see Corporate Watch publication,'What's
Wrong with Supermarkets').
The NFU has been very reticent about tackling this issue as it would
put them in direct conflict with the supermarkets and other corporations
responsible. Below are a few examples of how the NFU has completely
failed to deal with issues of corporate power.
“Farming Counts” campaign
In September 2002, the NFU launched a national campaign, Farming
Counts, "to demonstrate what farming means to Britain - its food
industry, its countryside and its economy". One focus
of the campaign was to highlight the difference between
retail prices and the farmgate price. Instead of
challenging the supermarkets and the role they play in this
price disparity, however, the NFU brushed over the issue,
merely blaming the farming crisis on, amongst other things, “the
collapse of world commodity prices at the end of the 1990's, meaning
British farmers simply received less for what they produced”.
See for example, the NFU UK Agricultural Review, published March 2003.
There is no explanation of why the world commodity prices might be
so low i.e. the role of supermarkets and big global food processors.
Ben Gill cooking for Tesco
At the Tesco Annual General Meeting, June 13th 2003, British
farmers questioned Tesco's Chief Executive, Sir Terry Leahy, on Tesco's
role in causing and exacerbating the farming crisis in the UK. Like
the NFU, Leahy also refused to accept the structural imbalance in
power between Tesco (as the largest buyer of UK agriculture) and UK
farmers as one of the causes of the farming crisis. His explanation
for the cause of the farming crisis sounded uncannily like the NFU.
He pointed to low world commodity prices, UK farmers getting a raw
deal from EU subsidies and the legacy of 'Foot and Mouth' disease.
Leahy also said that he had had lunch with Ben Gill the previous week,
who had stated that he, and the NFU, valued the support of Tesco and
that Tesco is actively supporting British farming through the NFU.
Tesco is indeed supporting the NFU. It has sponsored the NFU's Food
and Farming Roadshow that hit the road in April 2003 and which will
visit nearly 150 locations - agricultural and food shows, Tesco
supermarkets, farmers' markets, farm shops and town centres over the
summer months. The roadshow is aimed at raising
public awareness of food and farming, especially amongst
children, and also at promoting British food.
The supermarket supported Little Red 'Massey Ferguson' tractor
Ben Gill launched a massive quarter of a million pound promotional
drive for the 'Little Red Tractor' logo in March 2003 outside Tesco's
superstore in Kennington, South London. All the major supermarkets
support the NFU's British Farm Assurance scheme, which has the 'Little
Red Tractor' as its logo. The Little Red Tractor is also sponsored
by tractor manufacturers, Massey Ferguson. This Canadian multinational,
which is one of the leading suppliers of tractors worldwide, is now
owned by AGCO corporation of Duluth, Georgia, USA.
The NFU stands with Sainsbury against Farmers for Action
Evidence of just how 'close and cuddly' the relationship is between
the NFU and supermarkets was witnessed by Farmers for Action member,
Kelvin Lindsley on a protest outside a Sainsbury's supermarket in
2001, when he discovered Helen Lane from the NFU Press Office on the
end of the phone, negotiating on behalf of the supermarket to end
the protest.
Derek Mead, NFU Council Member claims "the NFU will not touch
supermarkets" i.e. not criticise them, stating that "Ben
Gill is cooking for Sainsbury's".
NFU supermarket members
According to the NFU ‘British Farmer and Grower’ magazine,
the organisation now has dedicated account managers for each of the
major supermarkets. However, this was denied by the
NFU Marketing Department which claimed that they appointed
individuals within the department as contact points for
members enquiries regarding particular supermarkets.
Sir David Naish and Express Dairies
Ex-NFU presidents have historically taken up a number of corporate
directorships. As the NFU has never asked members to declare any
potential conflicts of interest this can lead to awkward instances such
as the furore over previous NFU president, Sir David Naish,
taking over from Chris Haskins as Chair of Express Dairies
in April 2002.
The conflict of interest exists because Express is such a big buyer
of milk, processing 22% of milk in the UK. It is no wonder Express
Dairies wants such a staunch friend of big business at its helm.
Farmers for Action (see 'An alternative voice for farmers?' section)
has been actively targeting Express Dairies for not paying farmers
the cost of production for their milk.
Past presidents of the NFU have previously automatically become life
members of the NFU council. However, many council members saw an obvious
conflict of interest with Naish's appointment as Chairman of Express
Dairies, and in response voted overwhelmingly in favour of a resolution
to expel him from the union's governing body.
The 2004 NFU Farming Excellence Awards
Now in their sixth year, the
award categories, which pay £1000 to the winner, include:
- Best Innovations in the Food Chain Award sponsored
by Marks and Spencer.
- Farming Ambassador of the Year sponsored
by Safeway & Farmers’ Guardian.
- Farm Retailer of the Year sponsored by
Asda & The Grocer.
- Great British Food Award sponsored by
Sainsbury’s & BBC Good Food.
- Young Farmer of the Year sponsored by
Tesco & Farmers’ Weekly.
b) Close links with government
“The
NFU, as the largest farming organisation we have, has to become more
proactive or move over and out of the way to let others do so... At
the moment its cosy relationship with government undermines the
proactive work of others on behalf of the family farmers of the UK.”
Michael Hart, farmer and chairman of the Small and Family Farms Alliance
The NFU’s close relationship with
corporations is mirrored by its historically close relationship with the
Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAFF), now
re-organised under New Labour as the Department of the
Environment and Rural Affairs (DEFRA). MAFF had an
appalling reputation among farmers and other civil servants
of being overly bureaucratic, corrupt and serving the interests of
big landowners, especially when it came to dishing out subsidies. It
will be interesting to see how the NFU's relationship with the now
re-organised DEFRA pans out in the long term.
"The slaughtermen of the NFU"
Perhaps the most recent and appalling example of the
incestuous relationship between MAFF and the NFU was during the ‘Foot
and Mouth’ epidemic in 2001, when both strongly opposed a
concerted vaccination programme for uninfected animals, and
supported the contiguous cull, which saw the slaughter of
millions of healthy animals. Interestingly, it highlighted the deep
rift within government between No 10 who supported the
introduction of vaccination, and the MAFF bureaucrats. As noted
by Nick Cohen in the Observer,
"I've never found New Labour politicians and advisers as
furious or as willing to talk to Leftie hacks......elevated by a less
partisan contempt for the Ministry of Agriculture,
Fisheries and Food and a determination that it should share
the fate of millions of beasts. 'We've learned the hard way that
the department which gave us BSE is the last organisation you want
on your side in a crisis,' said one."
Close sources indicate that it may well have been Downing St itself
that leaked information to The Times newspaper revealing the NFU’s
investments, during the Foot and Mouth crisis, because they were so
frustrated with the NFU’s anti-vaccination line.
Ben Gill admitted that he was under enormous "pressure"
from the government to accept a vaccination programme, though he stuck
to his guns. Ben Gill did gain support from the
influential Food and Drink Federation (See Corporate Watch
profile on The
Food and Drink Federation).
Peter Blackburn, who was then Chief Executive of Nestle, and Lady
Sylvia Jay, both working on behalf of the Food and Drink Federation,
‘were very afraid of the consequences on all meat and dairy
exports’ of a vaccination policy which would lead to a twelve
month ban on UK exports. Blackburn was particularly concerned about
Nestle’s exports of powdered milk to developing countries.
Michael Hart, Chair of the Small and Family Farms Alliance speaks
of how he and other small farming groups had tried to get past the
NFU and MAFF and in to see Blair to argue against mass slaughter.
They gave up after 'hitting the proverbial brick wall'.
Indeed, many farmers in favour of vaccination felt totally let down
by the NFU’s position. Dr Sheila Crispin of Bristol University's
veterinary department, argues that the NFU 'did not represent those
farmers at the heart of the crisis" and how its spokesmen were
so " woefully ignorant" on this issue that "they should not
have entered the debate". It is very
likely that a majority of NFU members supported vaccination
but were not listened to.
Over a year later, in April 2002, Ben Gill was unrepentant. Despite
the pain and suffering that was caused both to animals and farmers
by the mass slaughter, he still claimed ‘he won a major victory
for farmers by changing the government's mind about vaccination'.
Most farmers who had their animals culled or who were affected by
movement bans would disagree. It is unlikely that Ben Gill was keen
to see a public inquiry into Foot and Mouth.