Mercosur 'only the tip of the iceberg' for protesting farmers - FFA
Farmers for Action (FFA) is pointing to a consistent trend in very strong levels of farmer unease across Europe at the future prospects for their businesses.
“This is why we are seeing large numbers of farmers taking to the streets in so many countries at the present time,” FFA spokesperson, William Taylor, commented.
“It is worthy of note that young farmers are to the fore in demonstrating their deep worries concerning the future of production agriculture. And Mercosur is only the tip of the iceberg.”
The FFA representative referred to the protest hosted by the Irish Farmers Association (IFA) outside the headquarters of Bord Bia in Dublin as symptomatic of the deep levels of frustration and anger now felt within production agriculture at an international level.
In the case of FFA, recent weeks have seen the organisation host protests outside Tesco stores in Coleraine, Antrim and Portadown.
“Our plan is to host a series of six protests: one per country across Northern Ireland over consecutive weeks," Taylor said.
“Next up is Cookstown in Co Tyrone. The protest there will take place on Thursday evening next, February 19."
FFA is campaigning to have the extension of inheritance tax on farm land in the UK scrapped completely.
In addition, the organisation wants to see a system of guaranteed prices introduced for farmers, set at a level that will allow primary producers generate a margin sufficient to allow them invest in the future of their businesses.
According to Taylor, the recent decision taken by the UK’s Chancellor of the Exchequer to increase the inheritance tax threshold for farm businesses to £2.5 million per contributor to a working partnership fails to address the core problem.
He said: “The increased threshold still exposes a significant number of farm businesses to the tax.
“No provision has been made to increase the inheritance tax thresholds in line with inflation.”
Consumers
FFA indicated that 200 explanatory leaflets were handed out to shoppers making their way in and out of Tesco’s Portadown store on Thursday of this week (February 12).
“Most of the people that we spoke to were very sympathetic to the points that we made," Taylor said.
“It’s important that consumers are made fully aware ofthe true costs associated with the production of food at the present time.
“And farmers must receive prices that are commensurate with this level of investment.”
