Last ditch for Britain's small farms - Brief Article

Britain's small farms are in a desperate state. High production costs and a flood of cheap imports have devastated all but the largest farms. This year, over 22,000 farm workers deserted the industry. And the recent merger between the UK's two largest dairies, Unigate and Dairy Crest, could pull the plug on the dairy farmer too.

According to official National Farmers' Union statistics, three to four British farmers are now committing suicide every week. Michael Hart, of the Small and Family Farms Alliance, thinks the actual figures are higher. He receives desperate phone calls every day. 'I was talking to a suicidal farmer last night. His wife has taken his shotgun away [ldots] It's a very depressing picture, I'm afraid.'

A group calling itself 'GB Choice' thinks that it is has the answer. They have set up a labelling scheme to tell consumers whether their food has been produced by British farmers. Current labelling laws are misleading: food that is labelled 'British' is often simply packaged or processed in Britain, whilst the actual grain or meat is shipped in from abroad. GB Choice is urging British consumers to pressurise supermarkets to feature the GB Choice label on their products.

Campaigners are also lobbying the government to increase the percentage of organically farmed land. The Sustain Food and Farming Group is calling for 30 per cent of Britain's farming land to be organic or under conversion by 2010, At present only 1 per cent of British agricultural land is organic.

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