UK FARMING is being swamped by a never-ending gravy train of quangos bragging about what they plan to do with what they seemed to perceive as an endless supply of food.

This broadside came from the Northern Ireland branch of Farmers For Action this week, which accused the people running quangos like the RSA Commission on Food, Farming and the Countryside and NI's Agri Food Strategy Board of 'lining their pockets' while swathes of farmers were going further into debt.

FFA’s NI co-ordinator William Taylor said: “The people behind the quangos don’t seem to realise that you cannot have food before farming, therefore, we expect to see issues in future discussed in logical order – i.e. farming before food.

“Common to all these quangos is the complete lack of any mention of sustainable farm gate prices while they debate the future of 220,000 UK farm businesses' produce, that they assume to be an automatic supply. These same farmers are increasingly facing diminishing returns for their produce."

Mr Taylor noted that President Macron of France had at least "taken the first step down reality road" by stating recently at the Paris Rungis wholesale market that it was unacceptable that one third of farmers and growers in France had to live on less the €350 a month.

Macron has promised to shake up the current ‘balance of power’ between French producers, food processing firms and retailers, taking a tougher line on low prices and discounting and a higher loss-leader threshold for retailers established. Legislation has been promised to reverse the current system of food pricing, putting production costs ahead of retailers' demands.

Mr Taylor noted that the Northern Ireland Agricultural Producers' Association and FFA had jointly been pursuing similar legislation for their province for the last three years or more, with a draft Bill written and ready for consideration by Stormont when it gets back to work.

“It is time for change where family farm businesses, the real food experts across the UK, take charge of their businesses legally and financially via legislation on farm gate prices," he said. “It is also time for the quangos to disappear until they can justify their existence after the issue of farm gate prices has been well and truly dealt with."