The Center Party’s leader Trygve Slagsvold Vedum will give an extra billion to the farmers – including grain farmers as his own farm.
Net on case
You are closest to yourself.
It is a strange sight to see representatives of 42,000 private and self-employed people behave as if they are government employees at NRK’s Debatten.
Minister of Agriculture Olaug Bollestad almost had to make sure that the farmers were so dissatisfied with the state’s offer of 960 million kroner that they left the table before negotiations.
The reason is, of course, that the election campaign is underway.
Neither the Farmers ‘Association nor the Smallholders’ Association wanted any compromise with the government. It was so predetermined that they did not even try to negotiate, but sat on the million tractor to protest outside the Storting.
– I want to give an extra billion kroner to the farmers, said the Center Party’s leader – and grain farmer – Trygve Slagsvold Vedum in the NRK debate.
It is no secret, but still worth reminding that the leader of the Center Party himself is a private self-employed person in this sector.
A nice side effect of being generous with taxpayers’ money is that it also increases the subsidy to grain farmers such as his own farm on Ilseng in Stange in the Inland.
It should be mentioned that Slagsvold Vedum rents out most of the land while he sits in the Storting, but in the longer term he will of course benefit from a better framework for the grain farmers.
Private businesses
When the farmers talk, it sounds as if they are on society’s payroll and that it is society’s responsibility that they earn poorly or have a low return on their equity.
It is worth remembering that the farmers have chosen education and profession themselves, and that they, like other private businesses, are responsible for making products that customers are willing to pay for.
It is also worth recalling that direct state aid is NOK 17 billion. In addition, the farmers benefit from the fact that we have put up customs walls that keep cheaper food out of the country. The so-called shielding support is estimated at around NOK 11 billion.
In total, society provides NOK 28 billion in direct and indirect state support – or around NOK 660,000 per man-year in agriculture.
Cheaper to buy abroad
When farmers are dissatisfied, it is important to remember that we produce food in Norway much more expensive than we could buy it for on the world market.
For example, we can look at wheat. According to Felleskjøpet’s price forecast will Norwegian farmers receive between 3.50 and 3.75 kroner per kilogram common wheat this year (target prices). In comparison, wheat is a commodity sold on international food exchanges, and the demand from 5.4 million Norwegians is of course just a small drop in the ocean.
The fact is that we could buy and import wheat from abroad for 228 euros per tonne, or quite accurately 2.30 kroner per kg. Norwegian farmers thus get more than 50 percent better paid for the wheat than we could buy it for abroad.
In the USA, the price is less than two kroner per kilogram.
Corona winners
It is part of history that Norwegian farmers received a golden settlement and almost 15 percent increased income last year. The big question is whether we should really prioritize farmers again this year – instead of spending society’s money on nurses, teachers, or the many who have been laid off or lost their jobs because society has shut down their jobs during the pandemic.
Paradoxically, the pandemic has been positive for agriculture. Admittedly, they have not been able to import so many foreign farm workers who work for under Norwegian market wages, but the grocery trade has gone like a bullet and the Norwegian population has been locked up in Norway.
More money for the farmers means less for other purposes. Or it means more expensive foods and higher taxes. Norway already has some of the world’s highest food prices. This year’s offer from the state meant NOK 490 million more from the state, and increased target prices – that is increased raw material prices for food – NOK 400 million. The state calculated income growth for farmers to 4.5 percent – that is, far more than what the regular wage earner receives this year.
The farmers’ response was to leave the table without negotiating.
Enough is enough
It undeniably seems a bit theatrical that the farmers get on tractors and drive tens of miles to Oslo to protest against an offer of 960 million kroner that their own dealers were not even willing to negotiate.
Minister of Agriculture Olaug Bollestad clearly signaled that they would get more money by sitting in the negotiating room.
Now the Storting should be old enough to ring around the actual negotiating institute for agriculture. It is untenable if the parliamentary majority is tempted to reward the farmers for running from the negotiations and getting on the tractors.
The Center Party’s leader Trygve Slagsvold Vedum has nothing to lose, but much to gain personally from handing out extra billions in a debate on NRK. It is not without reason that the party was once called the Peasants’ Party.
In an election year, it is forgotten that more farms were closed down under the red-green government in which the Center Party participated, than in the bourgeois government of Erna Solberg.
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