Did you know that 20% of all "farmers" get 80% of all government subsidies. These tend to be the big agri-busiesses rather than small family farms.
The National Farmers Union are representatives of the big farmers and are not even a Union, but a trade organisation.

Most farmers are poor and are being ripped of by thebig supermarket chains. For example it costs around 22p to produce a pint of milk but farmers are only paid 15p apint by the big supermarket chains, so the subsidies that farmers get are really subsidies to the big supermarket chains as it is they who are making the vast profits not the farmers. Farming is also the most dangerous industry to work inwith more accidents than any other industry including mining and construction.

All the farmers I know, have 2 flash cars plus a 4x4 and send their kids to public schools. Ok their incomes maybe low(ish) at the moment, but the banks are still willing to lend them loads of money so they can have a lifestyle which the vast majority of the people in Britian would be envious of.

Plus most of them own land worth a few hundred grand at least, which is a damn sight more than most people in this country have.

I think the point of the report is that groups like the NFU and the Counrtyside Alliance represent farm owners, and mostly big farm owners at that. They don't give a damn about farm workers.

Urban workers tend to see very clearly our interests are opposed to the bosses' interests; we wouldn't support an 'Urban Alliance' led by the CBI!

Yet some rural workers still fall for the town-v-country con, and support the CA and NFU even while the same organisations are taking legal action to keep their wages as low as possible.

In truth, the problems faced by rural workers are not so different to the problems faced by urban workers; and most if not all of them are caused by our bosses. What we really need is unity of all workers, town and country.

You are wrong again! Only a minority of UK farmers are rich enough to own two cars and send their children to public schools. Most UK farmers are struggling to keep their business afloat despite subsidies. They have to compete with cheap EU imports and boycotts of British beef. Hundreds of our farmers leave the industry every year.

You are right that farmers are sitting on hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of land. But this land is only worth this amount if it is sold off to building developers and most people want rural land to stay as farmland and countryside!

All the facts about farming are on the National Farmers Union website which is here:
 http://www.nfu.org.uk/info/farmfacts1.asp

Nearly 60,000 farmers and farm workers lost their jobs in the three years to June 2001. The NFU estimates that thousands more have lost their jobs in the first six months of 2002. It is estimated that 6% of premises infected by foot and mouth will not return to the industry - around 200 businesses. The latest figures show the average UK farmer earned just £10,000 for the financial year to February 2002. Current indications suggest that this will fall further in the coming year.

The "Total Income From Farming" in 2001 was down 71% on 1995 at £1.80 billion. This is more than two-thirds lower than 1996 when it was in excess of £5 billion.

Farmers are getting a decreasing share of the final value of their produce right across the industry. Many farmers are unable to even recoup the cost of production.

Suicides among farmers and farm workers currently stand at 59 a year - more than one a week. The average age of farmers is 58, with little indication of an influx of younger generations.

66% of farmers in Britain regularly work over 60 hours a week, compared to the national average of 38 hours a week.
Foot and mouth has cost farmers over £900 million after compensation, while losses to crops and farm buildings from flooding in recent years have been estimated at half a billion pounds.

WHAT ARE THE CAUSES OF THE AGRICULTURAL RECESSION?
The high value of the pound against the euro encourages food imports and hits our exports. This lowers our internal market prices. This also means UK farmers lose out when support payments - made in euros - are exchanged into pounds. There has been an increase in indirect taxation, for example on fuel, vital to those in rural areas.
The foot and mouth crisis closed off export markets and left farmers with slashed incomes but massive extra costs due to movement restrictions.

WHY SHOULD WE CARE ABOUT FARMERS?
Farmers manage over 75% of the land area of the UK, maintaining a landscape that has been cherished for generations.

Around 25,000 farmers have entered nearly a million hectares of farmland into "agri-environment" schemes to care for the countryside. They have planted and renovated 23,000kms of hedgerows in the last three years and manage 230,900 farmland ponds, an increase of 12,200 on 1990.
Farming contributes £6.65 billion to the national economy or 0.8% of the Gross Domestic Product, employing 557,000 farmers and farm workers, or 2.0% of the UK workforce.
More importantly, it forms the basis of the whole food industry, the country's biggest employer, contributing 14% to the GDP and with retail and catering sales of over £100 billion.

Farming is the lynchpin of a countryside tourism industry worth £12 billion. Foot and mouth has highlighted the importance of this role.

Farming allows the UK to be 66.5% self-sufficient in all food and 79% in indigenous foods.

Erm, Harlequin.. Okay, farming's important, there are some poor farmers, the theoretical value of land that can't be sold is kind of irrelevant, etc..

But the fact remains, the same NFU that you quote and link to ARE taking legal action to keep farm workers' wages low, aren't they? How do you explain that?