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Farmers
in the UK spend about half of all their earnings on feeds,
seeds, fertilisers, machines and pesticides. Half of this
total is spent on feeds - more than twice that spent on labour.
The costs to the environment of reducing the costs of labour
have never been calculated.
On the output side farms increasingly rely on large companies
to collect distribute and sell their produce. Many farms have
contracts with companies to produce potatoes and peas, which
are not sold on the open market but go straight to the company
factories or even directly to large retail outlets.
Food and energy fact
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About
35 companies in the UK, including Cadbury Schweppes, Sainsbury,
Associated british Foods and Unilever sell over half of all
the food. They take nearly twice as much money as the whole
farming community together.
In Denmark farmers receive only 21% of the price paid by consumers
for flour. 11% goes to the mills, nearly 50% goes to packaging,
transport and retailing. The term agribusiness rather than
agriculture is used to describe food production.
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