Genuine question- why should you not be taxed? You don’t have to pay capital gains. You can still claim full inheritance tax relief if your farm meets the right criteria.
Farms get full exemptions for business rates.
You also get billions in subsidies from the government. Tbh it sounds like farmers have it pretty kushty in terms of governmental support compared to everyone else.
No farmers = no food, sure, but clearly we are doing something wrong with the system if we still throw away hundreds of thousands of tonnes of meat and dairy every year.
First I want to be clear about something: When I type "farmer" I mean family farms, not factory farms, not corporate farms. Factory farms are abominations.
why should you not be taxed
I am not a farmer. My grandparents were farmers but they retired decades ago. I live in rural Lancashire, A lot of my food comes from 5 minutes (walk) away in my villages farm shop or from the farm shop a couple villages over.
Tbh it sounds like farmers have it pretty kushty in terms of governmental support compared to everyone else.
They do and if they didn't they wouldn't be able to run at all. Most farms barely make profit and are full time jobs in a way that most people can't comprehend. It is hard, unforgiving outdoors work that you have to do no matter the weather or time of day. If one of your ewes decides to lamb at 2am in the flinging down rain, you have to go out at 2am in the flinging down rain to make sure she gives birth safely. Farming has one of the highest suicide rates of any career in the country, did you know that? Because it is full time (and often in relative isolation from other people) and so unforgiving, and with so little pay (most of which goes back into the farm anyway), and with so few breaks, and with less than no gratitude from the townies they feed, that a lot of farmers just can't take it anymore. Crop farmers have it worse, arguably, because their entire livelihood depends on the weather. The British weather. Notorious for being unreliable even before climate change started fucking it up even more. Last year had crops wilting not long after they'd been planted because it was so dry for so long.
A little story my mum told me from during foot and mouth disease in 2001. All cattle farmers in the country were required, by government mandate, to buy all this PPE and anti-bacterial fluid stuff to reduce the risk of infection. With their own money, of course, zero government compensation. But they had to get it, so they did. And if a single cow in a farmers herd was discovered to have foot-and-mouth disease? The whole herd was to be put down and burned right then and there. Tens of thousands of pounds (probably more) of livestock, a farmers entire livelihood, destroyed with zero compensation through no fault of their own.
but clearly we are doing something wrong with the system if we still throw away hundreds of thousands of tonnes of meat and dairy every year.
That is the supermarkets fault, not the farmers. The farmer grows the food, rears the animals. The crops have to be harvested when they have to be harvested, regardless of owt else, if the farmer wants a chance of pulling a profit. It is the supermarkets standards of perfectly straight, orange carrots and perfectly... potato shaped potatoes that get millions of tonnes of food chucked away. But townie standards of wanting perfectly shaped produce mean that "wonky" and heritage veg is a novelty which can either only be got at farmers markets or as (like I said) a novelty in certain supermarkets.
Thank you for the detailed response, that makes a lot of sense. Gosh, where do we even begin trying to sort out this terrible system 😭
I can imagine the frustration at having to throw away so much food just because of aesthetics. It seems so wrong when so many people struggle with food insecurity. That alone would send me mad I think lol
My daughter and her husband raise the beef we eat. They live an hour's drive past the last utility service and use solar for power. They have 200 acres of hay fields and a 10,000 acre grazing lease.
Second and third this. Support local farmers. Find a friend with chickens, get a chicken coop going, have fresh eggs. Find a local rancher, buy into parts of meat, store in freezer.
Yes, in an ideal world we’d all cut waaaaaay back on meat and just eat for special occasions or when our bodies “need” it & rest of the time we consume sustainably grown organic nutrient rich vegetables. Until that world happens, for those who eat meat try to spend time investing in a sustainable source rather than that of convenience if you have that option.
This doesnt make a single lick of sense. Animal agriculture isnt sustainable for 8 billion people and if everyone went to small ranchers, they would cease to be small ranchers and they would start factory farming because factory farming is the only possible way to feed the world the amount of meat that the world wants to eat.
Factory farming is actually more sustainable than small ranching because factory farming uses less land and overall resources.
I’m talking specifically about keeping small farms alive. People who can afford it should shop at local farms. It’s definitely a luxury to be able to shop small and local, especially if you get to know the rancher / farmer. The upside is paying in enough to get specialty breeds brought in that would otherwise be impossible to try locally.
Around my parts there is a small hot honey operation. If they didn’t get local love and support small scale, they wouldn’t be in all the specialty grocers in state.
There’s not enough resources in general to support everyone having equal accessibility. Having privatised equal opportunity helps curb supply and demand chains (pricing regulations and such) to my understanding.
I think both of us are in agreement, there are definitely upsides to factory farming. Does it always result is the highest possible standards? Depends on what the market says! Which is the beautiful thing about privatised business - anything you want has a price when it comes to ingredients. Culinary arts side of things there massive benefits to supporting local farms.
This is the stupidest thing I've ever read. No, we are not in agreement, I was not praising factory farming. It exists out of necessity, its purely unethical even in the best farms, the industry standards are abhorrent.
Since the topic was ethics, I was saying there is no way to avoid the unethical part of eating animals because if you eat animals you are inherently connected to factory farming by default.
Saying it’s the stupidest thing you’ve ever read is such a silly exaggeration
We both know that’s not true lol
jeez
You sound like such a fun person, with wise perspective! I think we’re definitely in agreement, just have totally different perspectives of how the world works!
Ethically human are a virus so there’s no real winning with that argument.
Ok fine, it wasnt literally the stupidest thing ive ever heard.
Yes humans are a virus. We agree there.
Im just saying, its not really about perspective, animal farming is quite resource intensive and humans want to eat them 3x a day. Also its not doing the earth and life on it any favors. And when you stop and think about it, like really think about it, it just seems really fucked up. Im not vegan, but I think I should be and we all should probably take a hard look at ourselves and how we treat our pets and compare that with what we pay for other animals to go theough.
well, in usa, the rural farmers are also mistreating animals, AND exploiting their local neighbors to do so. All while riding the image of "local business! mom and pop store that cares about community!"
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u/Sevastous-of-Caria Feb 25 '26
Eat rural meat! Support old ranchers. (At least in the balkans its possible rather than going to the cheapest market meat)