Focus in Food

Pigs, cows, chicken, oat, barley, wheat. These are typical agricultural products which end up in our kitchen to be further prepared as food items for our family.

But the domestic food production has been disappearing little by little. When farmers don't get enough income from the agricultural products they choose for other income sources and move away from the food production chain.

Especially during the year 2008 inflation has accelerated and consumers are suffering from the food price increase. But the price increase of the agricultural products is not visible in the salary slip of a Finnish farmer. The main reason for this strange development is the annual food price negotiations, when couple of main market players decide the food level prices in Finland for the coming half a year. This also allows the negotiations of the price levels paid to the farmers. It does not sound like a liberally working part of our economy, but a cartell.

This domestic price development will end up in importing an increasing amount of agricultural prouducts into Finland. We have a long tradition of agriculture in Finland, but during the past couple of decades our wheat fields have started growing weed and cow houses are turning into sheds. We are about to ruin this corner stone of our well being, domestic food production, due to the greed of the food market enterprises. We can still prevent the future domestic food crisis when we stop allowing the rules of economy and greed to be applied into the food products.