Issue link: https://htpgraphics.uberflip.com/i/464860
One of the first economic theories students learn is that of economies of scale. By increasing your means of production, you are able to produce more for less. As a result, you are able to offer your product to customers at a cheaper price, making your business more competitive in the marketplace. As food production is now subject to the volatility of global markets, many UK farmers are struggling to survive, let alone be competitive. One area that continues to grab the headlines is milk. As prices fall, while the cost of feeding dairy cows rises, farmers are seeing paper-thin margins disappear altogether. The intensification of farming, increasing the yield per area of land, has been evolving over the post-war period. While technological advances and improved land management have seen crop yields rise without widespread protest, the idea of so-called 'super farms' in the UK has proved controversial. Supporters say the UK dairy and livestock industry needs large-scale livestock farms in order to be sustainable amid concerns over food security, price volatility and climate change. Opponents warn that super farms would put small producers out of business and would also detrimentally change the rural landscape. They also 13 AGRICULTURE EDITION REVIEW OF THE YEAR | would be a start in the attempt to reduce the 'immoral' amount of food that was going to waste. They said that their inquiry found that existing measures to tackle the problem in the EU were 'fragmented and untargeted'. They called on the new European Commission, which was due to be established in November 2014, to publish a five-year EU-wide strategy on food-waste prevention within six months of taking office. They also called on supermarkets to move away from offers such as 'buy one, get one free' on certain produce, such as fresh fruit and veg. The peers observed: '[Supermarkets] should also work harder to avoid cancelling orders of food that has already been grown by producers, a practice which leads to unsold, but perfectly edible, food being ploughed back into the fields or left unharvested.' They added: 'It is estimated that millions of tonnes of food is wasted annually in this way.' Super farms Consumers demanding cosmetically perfect food is one of the factors contributing to high levels of food waste The intensification of farming, increasing the yield per area of land, has been evolving since the war