Farmers have staged another protest against foreign food imports, arguing the rise in overseas produce has led to supermarkets offering to pay lower prices for home-grown products.
On Sunday (3 March), about 200 farmers came together to drive through Canterbury in Kent with tractors and other vehicles, reported the BBC.
Canterbury protest organiser Richard Ash said: “It doesn’t make sense to us to buy produce, with a high carbon footprint, from all over the world to this country, and then not to support and look after our own farming industry.”
In a statement, Defra said it “firmly back[s]” its farmers, pointing out the money it has invested into agriculture.
It said: “We’ve maintained the £2.4 billion annual farming budget which supports farmers to produce food profitably and sustainably and are also looking at ways to further improve fairness in the supply chain and support British farmers and growers, as well as ensuring customers have access to high-quality fresh British products.”
The protest follows a ‘go-slow’ demonstration where farmers used tractors to block the port of Dover last month.
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It also comes as farming advocate and Riverford Organic founder Guy Singh-Watson has launched the ‘Get Fair About Farming’, campaign calling the government to force supermarkets to treat farmers more fairly.
Earlier this year Singh-Watson launched a protest outside Parliament to urge Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda, Morrisons, Aldi, and Lidl to change their buying behaviour and adopt fairer principles for farmers.
Guy Singh-Watson said: “British agriculture is on its knees the livelihoods of our farmers are being laid to waste. I hope this hammers home to those in power the sheer scale of the problem and the urgent need for change.
“The current laws in place to protect farmers against the too often unfair and abusive behaviour of supermarkets and their suppliers are woefully inadequate. The silence from the ‘Big Six’ supermarkets amid the noise of the #GetFairAboutFarming campaign truly speaks volumes on how much they value the farmers who keep their shelves stocked and pockets lined all year round.”
