Continuing where I left off in my letter to you this morning, "Farmers: dispensable, contemptible beggars in a high-tech economy":

What is it that I think is so terribly and dangerously wrong?

It is so all-pervading that it is difficult to see, like the proverbial wood that cannot be seen for trees.

Basically what is wrong is in our attitudes and priorities. It is a society - including most farmers - that has sacrificed farming to the gods of money, subsidies, free trade and false economic efficiency.

It is you and I, demanding cheap food without concern for how it is produced or transported, or for externalised and non-pecuniary costs.

Farming should be far more than just a means of making money. It should be a way of life, a way of serving and relating to the society of which the farmer is an integral part. He should be concerned with producing healthy food for his fellow citizens in a way that is sustainable and respectful of  the earth and its creatures. There is a religious aspect, of course, but because everyone has his own religious feelings (recognised as such or not) and words are easily misunderstood, I shall not go into it. 

But by forcing the standards of industrial efficiency and of unfair competition upon him, we have caused the farmer to neglect his responsibilities.

Farming is the most basic and essential occupation there is, but we fail to recognise it as such, or to give it the respect and remuneration (not subsidies!) it deserves.

A major part of the problem is the alienation between producers and consumers - which, of course - does not only apply to farmers. How else could we come be so contemptuous of a profession on which we are so dependent?

Electricity, with the light and all the other comforts it provides, comes from a meter in the stair cupboard, drinking water from the tap in the kitchen, the gas for our central heating from a pipe in the floor, and the food we eat from the supermarket down the road. We are not concerned with
how they get there, only that they are there - which they nearly always are - and that they are as cheap as possible.

The problem goes very deep, encompassing much of our modern and so familiar way of life. Which is why it is so difficult to comprehend and face up to.
 

P.S. You can call me a prophet of doom if you like. But in fact, I am trying to point out how we might AVOID disaster.