My dad had a trusty old three-legged milking stool. A good stool was an essential tool when hand-milking, especially when a quick move was needed to avoid a hoof or tail or the passing of a motion.
Only once did I see it letting him down. He had ignored the developing split in one leg. One Sunday afternoon, it gave way and landed him and his milk pail on his bum. I thought it was very funny; he didn't.
I have since learned that a sound three-legged stool is the most stable seat you can have, especially for uneven ground. But as my dad learned, the legs must all be equally strong.
Three legs of farming
I think farming is a lot like a three-legged stool. The first leg is social; the people involved need to find fulfilment, fun, companionship and community. The second leg is environmental; farming needs to sustain healthy soil, air and water and support biodiversity.
The third leg is production; farming needs to produce enough to provide sufficient income. If like my dad, we allow any of those legs to weaken then, like him we can "come a cropper" and end up looking silly or worse.
The family owner occupier farming system has supported us well. Our rural areas are still good places to rear families, our farmed landscapes are still healthy and attractive and our food production is world class. The stool has been fairly level and has given us a good seat.
Budget concerns
I am concerned about the 2015 budget though. It contains new tax measures which have the potential to weaken the social and environmental legs of our stool. Stiff new capital taxes will be applied to discriminate against farmers over 65 and to remove them. The budget has also introduced a new category of farmer called "a commercially active farmer" to whom valuable tax benefits are to be directed.
"Active Farmer" and "Commercial Active Farmer" are yet to be defined but the definition must be broad and take equal account of all three aspects of farming. There are powerful interests such as banks, food processors and exporters who care only for the production leg and have little interest in the social or environmental legs. The earth is shaky at the moment, we need to keep our balance and a one legged stool is no use to anyone.
Land tenure
Budget 2015 also aims to discriminate against our present system of land tenure and to push farmers towards long-term leasing. All over the world, investors and hedge fund managers have woken up to the value of farmland as an asset and are hoovering it up wherever they can get it. The present government seem set to use the taxation system to gradually replace land ownership by land leasing over the coming decades.
The big questions are:
Who will end up owning the land? Will they be resident or absentee? Private or corporate? Will they care about rural society or the environment, or will they just extract as much rent as possible?What do you think? These are big questions to ponder while I sit on my three-legged stool.
My dad had a trusty old three-legged milking stool. A good stool was an essential tool when hand-milking, especially when a quick move was needed to avoid a hoof or tail or the passing of a motion.
Only once did I see it letting him down. He had ignored the developing split in one leg. One Sunday afternoon, it gave way and landed him and his milk pail on his bum. I thought it was very funny; he didn't.
I have since learned that a sound three-legged stool is the most stable seat you can have, especially for uneven ground. But as my dad learned, the legs must all be equally strong.
Three legs of farming
I think farming is a lot like a three-legged stool. The first leg is social; the people involved need to find fulfilment, fun, companionship and community. The second leg is environmental; farming needs to sustain healthy soil, air and water and support biodiversity.
The third leg is production; farming needs to produce enough to provide sufficient income. If like my dad, we allow any of those legs to weaken then, like him we can "come a cropper" and end up looking silly or worse.
The family owner occupier farming system has supported us well. Our rural areas are still good places to rear families, our farmed landscapes are still healthy and attractive and our food production is world class. The stool has been fairly level and has given us a good seat.
Budget concerns
I am concerned about the 2015 budget though. It contains new tax measures which have the potential to weaken the social and environmental legs of our stool. Stiff new capital taxes will be applied to discriminate against farmers over 65 and to remove them. The budget has also introduced a new category of farmer called "a commercially active farmer" to whom valuable tax benefits are to be directed.
"Active Farmer" and "Commercial Active Farmer" are yet to be defined but the definition must be broad and take equal account of all three aspects of farming. There are powerful interests such as banks, food processors and exporters who care only for the production leg and have little interest in the social or environmental legs. The earth is shaky at the moment, we need to keep our balance and a one legged stool is no use to anyone.
Land tenure
Budget 2015 also aims to discriminate against our present system of land tenure and to push farmers towards long-term leasing. All over the world, investors and hedge fund managers have woken up to the value of farmland as an asset and are hoovering it up wherever they can get it. The present government seem set to use the taxation system to gradually replace land ownership by land leasing over the coming decades.
The big questions are:
Who will end up owning the land? Will they be resident or absentee? Private or corporate? Will they care about rural society or the environment, or will they just extract as much rent as possible?What do you think? These are big questions to ponder while I sit on my three-legged stool.
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