United Kingdom

Supermarkets and Farmers Standing Side by Side In Support of UK Agriculture

Wed, 19 Feb 2025 17:18:00 GMT

By Paul Temple:Driffield, E. Yorkshire, United Kingdom

Supermarkets are standing with farmers and against a destructive new tax here in the UK.

“Almost every major supermarket chain has publicly backed farmers in their fight against the government’s inheritance tax increase,” reports The Times.

The chains include Aldi, Asda, the Co-op, Lidl, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s, Tesco, and Waitrose.

They all agree that the government’s plan to impose a crushing inheritance tax on farm families will hurt everyone.

“The UK’s future food security is at stake,” warned Ashwin Prasad, chief commercial officer of Tesco, which is the UK’s largest supermarket chain—and the British agriculture’s single biggest customer.

He called for “a pause in the implementation of the policy.”

Last year, as our new Labour government was searching for ways to squeeze money out of the UK’s population, it decided to target farmers—and took aim at something called Agricultural Property Relief, which allows farmers to pass on their farms to their children without paying inheritance taxes, sometimes called “death taxes.”

Because the value of many farms is locked up in land and equipment, an inheritance tax would force many family farms to sell their assets—and thereby break up the generational transfers that have made family farming an important part of British culture and economy.

The proposal would impose a 20 percent tax on farms worth more than £1 million. By one estimate, the tax would hit three of every four commercial farms in the UK.

This isn’t a tax on cash sales of farms. It’s a tax on the tradition of allowing farmers to pass on their farms to their children.

“Agriculture is the backbone of our food system and of rural Britain and we are hearing from our farmers that inheritance tax is limiting their ability to plan ahead,” said James Bailey, executive director of Waitrose, an upmarket grocer with hundreds of stores. “It is important that the government considers the impact of these changes and listens to farmers’ concerns.”

Supermarkets are in the business of putting meat, vegetables, milk, and more on the tables of millions of consumers. They are allies in the effort to move food from farm to fork. They worry about threats to their supply chains—and they see how this massive tax will disrupt the agricultural economy.

Writing for The Guardian, a newspaper that usually supports Labour, a family farmer in County Durham described the dilemma.

“From an early age, it’s drilled into you that the farm, the land, and its legacy are things you carry and pass on to your children. We don’t see the farms we inhabit as truly ours: they’re generational assets that produce food for the masses,” wrote Clare Wise. “It’s hard not to feel as though this policy is a land grab by ministers who have no idea about how farming works.”

That’s why I joined more than 20,000 other farmers at a protest in the center of London in November. Since then, farmers have staged a series of smaller events such as tractor runs to call attention to the problem. Supermarkets have invited farmers to use their car parks as we continue to oppose the tax.

The ministers who have no idea about how farming works must hear from us—the men and women who work the UK’s farms.

So must the public, which recognizes that it depends on farms every day. That’s why more than 270,000 people signed a petition that the National Farmers Union delivered to 10 Downing Street last month.

A letter to the prime minister accompanied the petition: “If [the farm tax] goes ahead, it will be the final straw that ends generations of farming families in the UK.”

Even before it has extracted a single penny from farmers, the inheritance tax already is taking a toll. Many older farmers are confused, wondering if they must take drastic action right now. Younger people are second guessing their plans to go into agriculture because they don’t know what the future holds for the farms their parents and grandparents built and maintained.

A disaster is getting underway.

The government must stop its mad scheme and take a new look at its budget numbers, this time in consultation with farmers, supermarkets, and other industry partners.

Paul Temple grows cereals, vegetables along with grazing beef cattle on a mixed arable farm in Yorkshire, United Kingdom. Involved in the UK FSE trials for 3 years, Paul volunteers as a board member of the Global Farmer Network. www.globalfarmernetwork.org

Which Foreign Country Owns the Most Farmland in the U.S.? Hint: It's Not China

Thu, 11 Jan 2024 17:24:37 GMT

Controversy continues to grow across the U.S., and China is the primary target of the new rules. However, China doesn’t own the most farmland in the U.S., according to a new USDA report. It’s actually Canada, which accounts for 32%, or 14.2 million acres.

Rounding out the top five are the Netherlands at 12%, Italy at 6%, the United Kingdom at 6% and Germany at 5%. Together, citizens in those countries hold 13 million acres, or 29%, of the foreign-held acres in the U.S. China owns less than 1%, or 349,442 acres.

All told, 43.4 million acres of forest and farmland in the U.S., or 3.4% of all ag land, is foreign owned as of Dec. 31, 2022. Roughly 30 million of those acres are reported as foreign-owned, with the remainder primarily under a 10-year-or-longer lease. Of the 30 million, 66% is owner-operated, 14% has a tenant or sharecropper as the producer and 12% report a manager other than the owner or a tenant/sharecropper as producer. The remaining 7% are “NA.”

USDA says the two biggest Chinese-owned companies with land holdings in the U.S. are Brazos Highland and Murphy Brown LLC, which owns Smithfield Foods. Brazos Highland reported owning 102,345 acres, and Smithfield owns 97,975 acres.

The top five states with the largest Chinese holdings are:

Texas at 162,167 acres
North Carolina at 44,776 acres
Missouri at 43,071 acres
Utah at 32,447 acres
Virginia at 14,382 acres

USDA reports those five states combined account for 85% of China’s farmland ownership. In Texas, USDA reports China has long-term leases associated with wind energy, and in North Carolina and Missouri, ownership is tied to Smithfield and producers who contract for pork production.

More States to Take Up Possible Bans in 2024

Foreign-held farmland has become a hot button topic on Capitol Hill. Farm Journal Washington correspondent Jim Wiesemeyer thinks it will continue to gain momentum in 2024 as a political ploy used by candidates.

“It’s an emotional issue, and it’s not a simple issue either,” Wiesemeyer says. “I was recently in Missouri, and some commodity leaders worry about the negative consequences of going too far. No one’s saying China should not be watched relative to buying farmland near airports, national security is involved in that case, but more than a few farmers are looking at the potential downsides for pork producers who contract with Smithfield and the number of acres they own.”

One of those unintended consequences is playing out in Arkansas.

“I’m announcing Syngenta, a Chinese state-owned agrichemical company, must give up its landing holdings in Arkansas,” says Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, referencing a 160-acre research site owned by Northrup King Seed, a Syngenta subsidiary.

Eric Boeck, president of Syngenta Seeds North America, told Farm Journal editor Clinton Griffiths: “EPA and USDA many times require us to do work and permitting right in the same state as we’re going to sell products. One of the first things we have to make sure we figure out is how we work with the local community to make sure we’re still getting products tested in their backyard, so we have the ability to sell those products.”

Syngenta argues if they sell that particular farm, Arkansas farmers will be at a disadvantage because research can’t be done in the same weather and soil conditions.

“We’re heavy in the soybean market in Arkansas, some of those maturity zones, we have a very significant market share and savings,” Boeck says. “We want to make sure we’re protecting those farmers’ abilities to be able to use our products.”

Wiesemeyer says the bigger issue for U.S. farmland might be solar panels, with farmers in states like Missouri reporting companies have offered to pay more than $1,000 per acre cash rent to put solar panels on their farm. At such a high price, he says it’s eating up acres of farmland, with the potential to grow even more in 2024.

US Trade Rep Tai to Discuss Biden's Trade Agenda Today

Wed, 01 Mar 2023 18:45:00 GMT

Tai will have a discussion with Foreign Policy Editor in Chief Ravi Agrawal today to discuss the Biden administration’s trade agenda. Tai is expected to signal that Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) are not permanently removed from the Biden administration’s trade plans based on comments she made to Politico in an interview.

Tai continues to try to defend the Biden administration’s trade policy approach that has even come under criticism from some Democrats.

“In this time and place and in this current situation, the traditional approach to free trade agreements — which isn’t just that they do tariff cuts, but that they do tariff cuts on a fully comprehensive basis — isn’t what we need right now,” Tai said. “That neither puts workers at the center of our trade policy, nor does it solve the challenges that we have with respect to resilience and sustainability.”

Tai said she was “open minded” on FTA talks with the U.K, but said no decision has been made, commenting that “nothing is off the table.”

Tariffs on China

Regarding tariffs imposed by the Trump administration on China, Tai acknowledged she faces regular questions on what it will take to get tariffs removed and whether they will ever be removed.

“If you take a couple steps back and you look at the policy landscape, I think that better question is, what has China done to deserve our dialing back the tariffs,” said Tai.

Tai also said the tariffs need to be viewed as a tool and that they should be useful.

Bottom line

The continued go-slow approach of the Biden administration’s trade policy the first two years of Biden’s term remains unchanged. Not much there, there.

Russian Oil Ban on the Horizon, No Near-Term US/UK Trade Deal

Tue, 20 Sep 2022 19:02:27 GMT

A U.S./U.K. trade deal is unlikely in the short to medium term, British Prime Minister Liz Truss said as she arrived in New York.

Truss said her focus was to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, along with trade deals with India and the six countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council. “Those are my trade priorities,” Truss said.

“There aren’t currently any negotiations taking place with the U.S. and I don’t have an expectation that those are going to start in the short to medium term,” Truss told reporters en route to the U.N. General Assembly.

When asked when she thought a trade deal with the U.S. might be feasible, Truss declined to comment.

President Joe Biden echoed Truss, saying such a deal was not a priority.

What This Means for U.S. Reserves

The politicians comments come as the U.S. Dept. of Energy plans to offer an additional 10 million barrels of strategic reserve oil for sale ahead of the EU’s plans to ban most Russian crude.

In March, the Biden administration authorized the release of 1 million barrels per day from the SPR over a period of six months in a bid to lower oil prices and potentially boost domestic production through contracts with companies to purchase future oil at fixed prices.

Volumes in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve have subsequently dropped to just 434 million barrels, marking their lowest level since 1984. At the start of the year, the SPR contained 593 million barrels, and it reached its highest point in 2010, when emergency stocks reached 727 million barrels.

Phil Flynn, energy market analyst at the Price Futures Group. says “the market should be freaking out” about the end of SPR draws. He thinks, when the releases end, it’s going to have the impact of losing a major producer — it will really tighten supplies. He even believes it could add another $5 to $10 premium to WTI oil prices.

The 10-million-barrel sale will bring U.S. total sales to 165 million barrels out of the 180-million-barrel target to be sold by the end of next month.

Ban on Russian Crude Oil

The reserve sale hits at a time when Global benchmark oil prices have retreated to levels seen before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and coincides with the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) discussing the possibility of curbing production.

OPEC and its allies agreed to cut output next month by 100,000 barrels a day. The new sale of 10 million barrels will be of sweet crude and contracts will be awarded by October 7.

Ban preparations in the EU and other countries have already begun, triggering shortages in areas outside of oil.

Oil Ban Preparations and Adverse Effects

Europe’s biggest truck makers are stockpiling natural gas and preparing to shift to alternative fuels amid the threat of a winter shortage as Russia continues to cut off pipelines to the continent.

Europe’s scramble for oil and gas is causing a tanker shortage. The liquefied natural gas (LNG) carrier shortage is particularly acute as much of the fleet has already been booked for winter when demand is expected to climb, especially when Freeport LNG restarts.

Meanwhile, Germany released another 2.5 billion euros of credit lines to secure gas supplies.

Josh Brazil, vice president of supply chain insights at Project44, is stationed in Germany. He says Russian oil bans, coupled with ongoing supply chain issues, will likely cause another wave of global disruption.

“In Germany, it’s a little bit different because we have gas rationing coming up. The worry is more about production and keeping just factories going here that are here,” he says. “Everything from just keeping factories warm to in-home heating, you name it, it’s going to go right to the core of German industry of what lights are kept on and who’s showing up to work.”

More on supply chain struggles:

Shipping Container Rates Down 63%, But We’re a Long Way From Back to Normal Operations
Nitrogen Prices Now Seeing a Resurgence For Fall, and Natural Gas Isn’t the Only Driver
Rail Strike Averted: Tentative Agreement Reached Between Railroads and Unions Comes on the Eve of Harvest

A Look Inside the Late Queen Elizabeth’s Dairy Farm

Fri, 09 Sep 2022 22:39:44 GMT

Queen Elizabeth II, the UK’s longest-serving monarch, passed away peacefully at Balmoral Castle at the age of 96. Her reign on the throne lasted 70 years.

The late queen, who was immensely popular throughout the world, was well-known for her soft spot for animals. While her love for her famed corgis was most recognizable, the queen also admired farm animals such as horses, pigs, sheep and even registered Jersey cows.

In 2001, Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, came up with the idea of selling high-quality goods from the Royal Estates and other small local suppliers. Its aim was to support the smaller businesses in the area while also providing the customers with the best quality products Britain had to offer.

The farm consists of 200 registered Jersey cows, a Sussex beef herd, 140 breeding sows, 1,500 Lohmann Brown hens, 1,000 acres of arable land and 2,000 acres of grassland mainly used to feed the livestock.

According to the farm’s website , the late queen’s Jersey herd is based at Prince Consort Farm in The Home Park. The original farm was designed by Prince Albert in the late 1850s. The original buildings were extended with new winter housing for the cows, and they now feature robotic technology. Additionally, the farm features automatic cow brushes as well as waterbeds for the royal herd to lay on.

While it remains unknown as to what will become of the royal farm, the milk is currently being sold to produce Windsor Castle ice cream.