We do think this is an absurd thing to complain about but then the modern left, you know:
UK farmers making tiny profits as supermarkets boast record takings
As the report itself, from Sustain, goes on:
For a 480g pack of mild cheddar purchased in a supermarket the dairy farmer has high production costs of £1.48 yet receives in profit 0.02% (much less than a penny) of the selling price of £2.50.
For a 350g four-pack of beefburgers….receives in profit 0.03% (far less than a penny)
For a loaf of bread, the cereal farmer has costs of 9.03p yet receives an almost negligible profit
For 1kg of apples purchased in a supermarket (about 6 apples), the apple grower has costs of 76p, yet receives in profit just 1% (3 pence)
Isn’t this glorious? For it’s the proof of the free market creed. It’s entirely true - as Steve Keen keeps pointing out - that there’s no truly free market anywhere. As we don’t have an infinite number of producers of anything with zero costs of market entry then we don’t have anything that truly and wholly meets those theoretical strictures of what is a truly free and entirely competitive market.
On the other hand, with farming we do have some billions of farmers globally which is probably enough to at least asymptotically approach such an infinite count of suppliers. Entry costs at the small scale are really very low - most local councils will rent you a starter farm for £100 a year or some such even if we do normally call them allotments.
So, we’re really very close, with farming, to that model of a truly free and competitive market. The end result of which is that the producers make from near no to no profit. Well, there we go then, our proof of the desirability of a free and competitive market. In one the capitalists, the producers, make near no profit. Job done, extraction and exploitation - expropriation of the worker’s sweat of hand and brow even - destroyed.
Given that we’ve now got our proof all else that is necessary is to insist upon having free and competitive markets in every other area of life. At which point the cruel rapine of capitalism is destroyed. Super - job done.
Next question?