All genuine grass-roots farmers really want is to be paid a fair price - Sarah Todd

There is a fair chance the general public will generally welcome farmers getting some financial reimbursement for taking measures to improve the environment. A few acres here and there; new trees planted in the corner of a field at one side of the farm and some nectar-rich plants elsewhere. But what about the barley barons with thousands of acres already?

Far be it from this writer to attack anything to do with farming, but the public relations of schemes funded from the public purse needs to be absolutely spot on. All credit to any initiative that persuades some poor farmer - up to his welly tops in clart - to plant that hedge he’s always wanted to put in to provide shelter for his sheep but never had the spare cash or time.

An interesting aside is the amount of land that large landowners now keep ‘in hand’.

In years gone back much of this land would have been rented out as tenanted farms; once the traditional leg up onto the farming ladder. Communities were then built up around these holdings; with young families attending local schools, tenants and farm workers spending their money in local shops and pubs. Instead lots of land is now managed by corporate concerns. Contractors speeding in on huge tractors and then disappearing on to the next destination. Times change and there’s nothing those of us with rose-tinted spectacles can do about it.

Is there a point to this? Well, perhaps that the public needs to know that there are many different tiers within the farming community. This often doesn’t come across, with sons and daughters of the soil lumped into one big gravy train of subsidy schemes - that should probably read Range Rover - as far as some sectors of the population are concerned.

Payments from farming support schemes, for some, make the difference between selling up (either to one of the aforementioned large farming businesses or the move-to-the-country brigade) or not. A little bit of breathing space.

Not all see land as a business opportunity; it’s a way of life that has been passed down through the generations. These specimens are an endangered species and have forgotten more about land, livestock and the environment than anybody with a clipboard will ever know.

Thinking aloud, all the genuine grass-roots farmer really wants is to be paid a fair price for his or her livestock and crops. Supermarkets selling vegetables for 15p a packet, chickens for the same sort of money as a large portion of chips or milk at less than the cost of producing isn’t what they want. Likewise, they never like seeing the inflated prices of other items. There are many farmers who look on in wonder at the price some shops sell steaks and joints of meat at. The mark-ups on show rarely have anything in common with the price received when the animal left the farm gate.

Talking of meat, it was great to see people power in action when an East Yorkshire land-based college made a muck-up of marketing its menu.

Generations of farmers have picked up a certificate or two over the years from Bishop Burton College, near Beverley.

Many an old agric would be turning in their graves if they had read the offending ‘Happy Veganuary’ Facebook post advertising plant-based meals in the canteen.

Of course, there is absolutely nothing wrong in offering meat-free alternatives. There is many a cereal, carrot and pea farmer within a proverbial potato’s throw of the land-based college’s campus. What seemed a kick in the teeth was the wording promoting the new Meat Free Mondays and Wellbeing Wednesdays as a way ‘to promote a healthy diet contributing to good mental health as well as sustainability’. It is fundamentally wrong that meat-free is so often marketed like this; as the thinking person’s healthier choice. We have found ourselves in a world of pandering; trying to please all of the people all of the time. It’s just not possible and our differences should be celebrated. Square pegs don’t fit into round holes and they shouldn’t be forced by the politically correct to do so.

Anyway, the bottom line is all agricultural colleges should be championing local produce - be that fruit, vegetables, salad or meat.

Bishop Burton has its own on-site farm rearing pigs, cattle and sheep and students and farmers were united in saying they expect the college to bang the drum for the agricultural industry - not put the boot in. It even has apprenticeship schemes to help train butchers. Making a meal plan sourced from college produce would make much more sense, putting field-to-fork into action on the curriculum.

The principal, Bill Meredith, is one of life’s gentlemen and quickly apologised for the upset the post had given to the farming community. Critics should cut some slack; these designated days are par for the course when it comes to places of further education.

Sarah Todd is a journalist specialising in farming and country life. Read her regular column in Wednesday’s edition of The Yorkshire Post.