Can you stomach rising food prices?

Cheap food comes at a very high price. Worldwide food production costs have increased significantly so the cost of food will not magically go down and retailers will not reduce prices that will reduce their own profits. So the only way a supermarket can reduce the price of food would be to cover the loss by increasing the price of another item, or passing any loss back to the producer whose own costs have increased dramatically. If UK producers go out of business we would have to rely on imported food. This would mean the money would go out of the country and our balance of payments would be even worse. This affects us all as if the money goes to a UK producer he will use British goods and services and the money will circulate back into and around our own economy helping create jobs and help to strengthen the UK economy. The inflation affecting us now has been made worse by what is called “imported inflation.” Things we have to import like oil that we have no control over cause this. If we loose UK food producers by underpaying them now, we will then have to face the consequences of relying on imported food as we will have lost control of price and supply, and also of the standards of production which apply to UK producers. So please will you remember this before you rush to the store that appears to be cheapest, as cheap food comes at a very high price.

It is not the producer at fault, it is the retailers who have not show loyalty to consumers by screwing producer prices down so that they often cannot meet production costs.

As a result of continual price wars, food was already grossly undervalued and consumers have expected and enjoyed cheap food up until now.

Retailers may still appear to be the consumers friend as the main current selling points are related to saving money, and although extremely important to hard-pressed consumers this is not the panacea for the current severe economic difficulties faced by the population of the UK.

There is apparently no shame in farmers working long arduous hours often in difficult, dangerous and weather driven conditions and making huge losses, as retailers complain about negative growth while their profits still increase.

British Agriculture has the ability to continue to provide the widespread stability and economic growth the country needs and that rural communities rely on.

This must surely take precedence over the economic growth of already large individual supermarkets, and retailers must share the pain like everyone else by returning some of the substantially increased margin over retail prices they have greedily gained over the last ten years instead of stealthily transferring increased costs to producers or consumers.

If retailers had kept food prices realistic when times were better, and not screwed down producer margins to pay for loss leaders like milk etc, this would not have now caused such a “double whammy” for consumers.

With extortionate costs to cover who can blame producers for helping their business survive by bypassing the retailers to sell their produce to those who appreciate its value and the cost of its production.

While continual cut-price supermarket promotions may appear to help consumers, particularly low-income families, by keeping prices down in the short term, these promotions must be paid for in some other way at some point.

Food sold too cheaply on promotion encourages purchase of more food than is needed, leading to waste of good food. It also leads to lower quality of food, production standards and unfair trade that passes costs back to producers.

Promotions are also extremely unfair on the elderly and others who do not want or need more than they will use so end up paying a disproportionate amount for single items.

Retailers ought to support UK producers by paying a fair price and if consumers value their food and want to ensure their food is of a decent quality, is produced to a good standard and that their is a secure food supply for the future they must support fair trade for UK producers and costs could be cut by wasting less.

Yes David S and I should understand one another.

I am talking about large corporate companies who can well afford to assist ordinary poor people who are attempting to feed themselves and their families, while also paying UK producers the fair price needed to keep a business viable.

Producing food is a huge responsibility and financial risk far greater than that of retailers who very often also take more than their fair share of what consumers pay them.

Also David, please remember that poor people will become even poorer if we have to rely on food coming from abroad as prices will rocket if foreign suppliers have no competition from UK producers. Remember also that while our manufacturing industry is on its knees we will always need food, and British food producers circulate a lot of money around our economy which provides jobs for people.

For example, an average sized dairy farm alone may have over 60 suppliers. They have their own suppliers and employees, all of who use local shops, pubs, garages, tradesmen etc.

So the success or failure of farms with consistent high turnovers of business impacts on many, and ought to remain the pivotal and essential part of our economy they have been for centuries”.

Regarding those few fortunate rich people who can afford to shop at extortionately expensive farm shops, if they can afford to do that what is the problem as it may help keep the producer in business, and how will it help the poor if they change to a diet of gruel?

Get real David, this is just the politics of envy and is as unfair as saying that all poor people don’t work and choose to spend their money on smoking, drinking, designer clothes, plasma TV and junk food – even though there are actually more than a few who do.

I have heard many conversations from third generation benefit claimants – often applying for Crisis loans – who say they cannot afford to feed their family. Often on Fridays (need money for the night out), or Mondays (spent up on the night out), whilst also discussing things like where to get expensive tickets for concert venues, what they did on their night out or displaying acrylic nails or an elaborate tattoo.

Nothing will ever be fair at either end of the scale, so please lets concentrate on somewhere in between and support our UK producers so we keep some hold over price, supply, and production standards within the UK while also keeping money circulating within our own economy.

So why cant the government produce common land and encourage rabbits , hairs , wood pigeons and give every citizen of the uk the right to hunt. when i was a child i used to snare rabbits , shot pigeons help my mum on the allotment growing veg if food is so expensive why are we not empowering our citizens to be more self sufficient.

Perhaps local authorities should in fact run classes to teach these skills. In our house when i was growing up we were never short of good food.