04/17/2026
Everyone says they want high welfare British farming. Animals treated properly, small family farms, ethical, traceable food, all the right things. And farmers have spent years trying to deliver exactly that, often going above and beyond because it matters just as much to us as it does to anyone buying it. We live and breath this life. We love our cattle, sheep, chickens, pigs, whatever else, we care deeply about their welfare.
But hereโs the part that doesnโt quite get said out loud. For years, the gap between what food actually costs to produce and what people are willing or able to pay was quietly held together by subsidies. Not to make farmers rich, because thatโs laughable, but to keep food affordable while still allowing farms to survive. It was the thing that made that contradiction just about work.
Now that support is being stripped back. And in many cases, what replaces it isnโt paying farmers to produce foodโฆ itโs paying them to do something else. Environmental schemes, land management, taking ground out of production, or pushing farms towards diversification just to stay afloat.
So the situation now is this. Farmers are being asked to produce better food, to higher standards than ever, with less supportโฆ while still competing with cheaper imports and pressure for low prices. That isnโt pressure. Itโs a contradiction that simply doesnโt stack up.
And itโs already showing. Small family farms arenโt disappearing because theyโre doing things wrong, theyโre disappearing because theyโre trying to do things right in a system that doesnโt reward it. Farms that have been part of rural communities for generations are stepping away from food production, not out of choice but because they canโt make it work. Turning to glamping, holiday lets, anything that actually pays.
And at the exact same time, weโre now seeing warnings about potential food shortages linked to global conflict, disruption to fuel, fertiliser and supply chains. We are being told to prepare for shortagesโฆ while quietly losing the farms that produce the food in the first place.
Just let that sink in. We are worried about food shortagesโฆ while reducing our ability to produce food at home.
Thatโs the point.
You cannot want food security while allowing food production to disappear. You cannot demand the highest welfare and standards while building a system that only rewards the lowest price. Something has to give, and right now it isnโt the expectationโฆ itโs the farms.
This isnโt about blaming individuals. Many people go out of their way to support British farming, buy direct, and value how food is produced, and that genuinely keeps farms going. And some people are simply trying to afford food in a difficult world, and that comes first, no judgement at all.
And the honest truth? Most farmers donโt have the perfect answer to fix it. Sadly, itโs not that simple. But whatโs even more worrying is that so many people arenโt even seeing the question in the first place.
Because if weโre not even asking how we sustain our own food productionโฆ how are we ever going to find the answer?
