Daily Mail-style rant? Hopefully the opposite.

[cheekbones3]

Apparently numerous fishermen are complaining that they lose money every time they leave port, and are therefore thinking of blockades as a protest about fuel costs etc.

 

Call me stupid, but wouldn't it be more sensible if they didn't set out fishing until it's economically viable? "Duh, the fuel for the boat is going to cost more than the price I'll get for what I catch. I'll set out anyway and whinge about it later."

 

Might even be some fish to catch if they take some time off...

Comments

[wee0ne.livejournal.com]

Sheep sell for £50 each; Cattle are better, they can go for about £800 each (see these prices)
Barley is about £160 a tonne at the moment.

Now you know why sheep-farms are dying: How do you make a profit on £50 a skull, given the investment needed to husband them?

Yes, there is a surge in food-prices, but it's all fueled (if you forgive the pun) by the cost of diesel: getting livestock in & out the farm; getting vets, staff, chemicals, mechanics, fencing materials, and general sundries etc in & out the farm; shipping the final product off the farm & into the start of the processing chain.... believe me, there isn't money going into the farmers pocket...

[guyinahat.livejournal.com]

Well presumably farmers everywhere are facing the same rise in the price of oil? I expect New Zealand lamb will become a lot more expensive as the shipping costs go through the roof.

Also, as the tax here is a fixed amount per litre rather than a percentage, as oil prices go up, the relative tax burden here goes down. I percentage increase to costs would therefore be greater in somewhere like the US.

Grain is also becoming a new fashionable comodity to invest in, just as oil did (causing the price rise). So if farmers who are able switch to that do so, supply of livestock would also decrease, driving up the price.

[cheekbones3.livejournal.com]

Trouble is, most livestock (apart from dairy) is on land unfit for grain.

[guyinahat.livejournal.com]

Just as well we have CAP then!

I reckon a change in the stupid greenbelt protection laws would be a good start. Make it easier for farmers to turn land into housing and they'd have an alternative source of iocome to fund getting out of the industry when it slumps. Also, if land for housing wasn't so incredibly hard to create, housing wouln't be anywhere near as over-priced as it is.