The National Farmers' Union
(NFU)
Profile
By Corporate Watch
UK
Completed July 2003
The NFU's over-arching analysis
of the global farming crisis
There have been some recent indications that the NFU is inching its
way into the 21st century in its analysis of the farming crisis.
Anthony Gibson, regional director of the NFU in the South West and
perhaps one of the most well-regarded regional directors, on his return
from an agricultural conference in Florence in 2002 stated in his
column in the Western Morning News:
‘How do we protect rural society, rural culture...from the
depredations of corporate juggernauts, powered by greed, sponsored
by the US government and answerable to no-one but their shareholders?
There is no more important question in world agriculture’
In recent years, Ben Gill has begun to make some promising statements
on global trade and the role that it played in causing classical swine
fever and 'foot and mouth' disease.
At the Royal Show June 2003, it seemed that the penny had finally
dropped when he said that "Farmers are having to fight in
an increasingly cut-throat marketplace, dealing with the might of
major international companies." His solution to 'the "David
and Goliath" situation created by globalisation' is for UK
farmers to join co-operatives and form farmer-controlled businesses
so that the domestic industry is in a better position to forge international
alliances i.e. transnational co-operatives.
Whilst it is exciting to hear Ben Gill finally casting blame on the
agrifood corporations, its a shame that he couldn't bring himself
to call for regulation to curb their power.
Many farmers in the audience would have shrugged their shoulders at
the idea of co-operatives as the solution to the farming crisis. Whilst
it may be part of the solution, without at least some regulation on
multinational corporations, there is simply not the space for new
international farmer's co-operatives to develop in anything other
than niche markets. See for example, in the US, the largest farmer's
co-operative, Farmland, the pork producer, who went bust trying to
compete with Cargill, a huge US agribusiness in May 2002.
Its also interesting that Gill cites Arla, the Danish farmer's co-op
who are currently in the process of buying UK dairy processor, Express
Dairies, as a stunning example of farmer's regaining power. If the
competition authorities allow Arla to complete this transaction, the
biggest dairy company in the UK will be owned by Danish farmers, not
British farmers.
Besides, his words have none of the passion and anger of a campaigner
who really believes that the supermarkets and the global food processors
are essentially exploiting farmers, devastating the environment and
destroying rural communities. In his Royal show speech, there was
a definite air that the globalisation, the further liberalisation
of agricultural markets and phasing out of subsidies is 'inevitable'
and farmers will have to face up to this restructuring of the global
food system as they can't resist it or fight the power of the multinationals.
This idea that 'big farms are best', and that UK farmers must grow
bigger (through forming co-operatives or buying out smaller farms)
so that they can compete on the world market is a definite current
in NFU thinking dating from when Sean Rickard was chief economist
at the NFU (see Appendix II). Not only does this policy fail to reflect
that the liberalisation of agriculture has and will create huge environmental
and social problems,
but the policy is also to the detriment of its members, especially
smaller farmers and new entrants to farming. It seems strange that
a membership organisation would actively campaign for its members
to be forced out of business.
