Wow! My mind has been stretched and challenged from the relentless barrage of events thrown at us, either weather events, central or local government decisions, personal challenges, and the continuous flow of public opinion about farming practices — much of it ill-informed.
Then I started thinking about 2023 and what this new year was going to bring. Is it going to be much the same, or is it going to be less, or is it all going to be ramped up another step, with an election looming?
For me, central and local government decisions and newly proposed and introduced regulations were the biggest bugbear and I think 2023 will be much the same. Being election year, there’ll be promises made and new policies rammed through to appeal to the masses, without consideration of the effects those can have. It’s all about popularity rather than what is actually right for this country and its people.
Over the summer break everyone was talking about the egg shortage — how inconvenient it was and how expensive they had become. It came about from regulations introduced in 2012 to phase out caged hens by 2023.
To respond to that regulation, some chicken farmers transitioned from caged systems to large colonies, where chickens roam around in a confined shed. But that wasn’t good enough for the major supermarkets, which decided they would not accept eggs from colony-style farms. Hey presto, an egg shortage. Honestly, why are we surprised?
This happens all too often when regulations are introduced. We change and adapt, often with huge costs, only to have the goal posts shifted again and again.
The egg situation is just one example. But with the continuous barrage of ill-thought-out and emotively driven policies, no thought to the likely perverse outcomes, and no consideration of the financial or social costs, just watch this situation play out again over the next few years.
The penny has finally dropped for many this summer, as dots were connected about how there came to be no eggs on supermarket shelves. Hopefully memories aren’t as short as the summer.
