Singh-Watson said: "Without fairer treatment for farmers, the reality is the destruction of British farming along with the landscape, wildlife and rural communities it once supported"

Fruit and vegetable growers in the United Kingdom are fighting for their lives against "unfair" treatment by the six biggest supermarket chains in the nation, and on Monday morning they will stage a scarecrow protest in front of Parliament.

Guy Singh-Watson, one of the protest organizers, stated that 49 scarecrows will be positioned outside the British legislature by demonstrators to highlight the statistic that 49% of farmers say they are considering quitting the business.

"British agriculture is on its knees," declared Singh-Watson, the petition's initiator and proprietor of the company Riverford Organic.
Singh-Watson claims that government regulations were infrequently enforced and did not adequately assist farmers.

"The livelihoods of our farmers are being laid to waste," he stated.

The farmers want the supermarkets to follow "fair" purchase agreements, which include making timely payments "without exception" and purchasing agreed-upon quantities.

The chains Tesco, Sainsbury's, Asda, Morrisons, Aldi, and Lidl are said to have unfair purchasing agreements that will force many of them out of business within the next year.
Lawmakers will be debating a farmers' petition to revise the grocery supply chain code of practice while the protest is taking place.

With over 112,000 signatures, the petition requests that the government make sure that shops "pay what they agreed," "buy what they agreed," and make their payments on schedule.

"Without fairer treatment for farmers, the reality is the destruction of British farming along with the landscape, wildlife and rural communities it once supported," stated Singh-Watson.

Co-ordinator William White of the Sustain alliance for sustainable farming stated that the protest's goal is to deliver "a stark message"—that is, that government regulation alone will guarantee farmers receive a fair price for the food they produce.
According to a representative of the Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs, fruit and vegetable growers are essential to the UK food system's ability to withstand economic downturns.

"It is only right that British farmers and growers should be paid a fair price, and our review into the fairness of the supply chain will help address these concerns," stated the statement.

Leaders in farming and food published an open letter to the supermarkets last year, claiming that their purchasing policies left farmers "struggling to survive" and are "all too often imbalanced, short term, and wasteful".
The letter stated that complete crops are occasionally rejected "at the last minute" by supermarkets.

"Delicious food eventually goes bad in the field. Farmers receive no compensation for their harvest. And they are having difficulty surviving in the absence of a steady, consistent income."

End//voice7news.tv