The organization said dairy farmers "pulled the plug on not just one day’s milk, but two," and others did not sell their animals, produce, or grain. "We achieved all and more of our targets," the Farmers For Action (FFA) said in the press release, "and had plenty of media coverage, especially on local radio, TV and press." The strike was called several weeks ago "to highlight the disastrous situation that is now surrounding British food production."

"Agriculture is one of the most important industries in the world. We have to defend it," said Watkyn Richards, a farmer from Pembrokeshire, west Wales, in a phone interview. "Unions have had to stand up to attacks on the coal and steel industries in this area over the years. The NFU is not prepared to do the same for farming, but Farmers For Action is. Suicide rates in rural areas are rising. It’s a result of what is happening to agriculture."

Richards was referring to the fact that the National Farmers Union (NFU), Farmers Union of Wales, National Pig Association, and the National Beef Association not only did not support the strike but came out against the action.

"Farming has reached such a low ebb farmers have to help each other," argued Bob Robertson, a wheat farmer who is the Kent coordinator of FFA. "In France they have shown they are willing to do that, so must we."

Robertson spoke to Militant reporters during a recent visit to his 160-acre farm. He described how working farmers have been facing depression conditions for several years. The drop in the market of wheat has "not been as severe recently as it has been for dairy farmers," he said, "but there has still been a decline--from £144 (£1=$1.50) a ton five years ago to £52 a ton today."

Working people have not seen an equivalent drop of prices at the store, as the big grain and food processors use their monopoly position to increase their profit margins, with devastating effects on food producers like Robertson and other working farmers. As a result, many work a second job or find ways to try to make ends meet. Referring to the nearby sound of model airplanes buzzing around, Robertson said he has been "forced to try to use my land for leisure activities."

He also described the efforts of Kent grain farmers to get a better deal with the big grain processors. The farmers have set up cooperatives to try to counteract the competition among farmers by bringing their produce to the market as a block, forcing the big dealers to pay a better price. Robertson pointed out that co-op members also have additional storage costs that counteracted some of the benefits of cooperative membership.

Similar experiences in other parts of the country of dairy and livestock farmers cooperating in order to offset the effects of the capitalist market are floundering as the worldwide economic crisis deepens.  
 
Collapse of dairy co-op
One example is the Dove Valley in Foston. More than 100 farmer-shareholders have been devastated after the Amelca dairy was put into receivership. Dairy producers supplying the Derbyshire milk and cheese factory were promised a premium price for their milk. Amelca said it could afford to pay a premium because all farmers were within 25 miles of the site and collection costs were minimal.

Farmers and their associates supplied about £1 million of equity to found the dairy. They poured in another £3 million of £6.6 million in funding raised two years ago.

"I’m absolutely devastated," said shareholder John Stanley, who farms near Coalville, Leicestershire. "What hope is there for dairy farmers to make a profit if ventures like Amelca fail? I feel as though we’ve been shafted." He said he is now losing £1,000 a week with the price he now receives from another buyer.

Near Northampton farmers are campaigning against the closure of the local livestock market that has £1 million in debts. They are trying to put together a consortium to buy the market.

Bob Robertson, whose grandfather had been a tenant farmer in Scotland and had moved south to buy land in the 1920s, was interested in the Militant’s recent reports on the struggles of farmers in Scotland. Of particular note were the recent mobilizations of farmers at meetings in opposition to the government’s proposed restrictions on nitrate use.

"I’ve been campaigning against the attempts to restrict nitrate use on and off for about seven years now," he said. "I refuse to accept the European Union’s proposals, because there is plenty of research that suggests that nitrate is not toxic and the cause of pollution, but a nutrient." Robertson, along with a member of the NFU, had recently addressed the World Health Organization on this question.

Paul Davies is a meat packer in London. Antonis Partasis contributed to this article.  
 
 
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