Geography

Changes in  UK Commercial Farming:Farmers prices:- Four supermarket chains control 75% of UK grocery sales.- Farmers must then reduce their crop prices in order to sell to supermarkets, otherwise big brands look elsewhere for cheaper suppliers.- Farmers incomes are also reduced because some supermarkets won't buy foods before they have been processed. So products are bought by processing firms from farmers, which are then sold to supermarkets.- The low income farmers are now suffering from can really have an impact on their livelihood.Competition in the global market:- Global food trading has increased, meaning that food is being imported from other countries.- People in the UK are able to buy a wider range of food all year round.- This imported food is cheaper, especially if bought from poorer countries = land is cheaper for farmers, workers are cheaper to hire.- ^ It's these situations which UK farmers are having to compete with, and so many have to lower their prices even more.East Anglia - CASE STUDY:- Areas include Suffolk, Norfolk, Essex and Cambridgeshire.- Known for producing a quarter of the England's wheat and barley.- 2.2 million eggs are produced each days from farms in this area.- Agri-business has increased greatly, for example in Essex in 1990 828 hectares of farms, to 2005 where there were 849 hectares of farms.- In 2008 only 1.3% of land in East Anglia was organically farmed, when in total over England 3.7% of land was organic.- The area that is covered by the Environmental Stewardship Scheme most in all of England = this is because famers want to reduce their environmental impacts.- East Anglian farmers are affected by oversees produce completion. In 1997 peas were sold at 25p per kilo, in 2002 this has dropped to a mere 17p.

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