Produce and Prices As Sir George Stapledon has pointed out,
any revolution in farming must come from the land itself. Politicians, .who know generally little about agriculture and care less, have always delighted in the stock-answer, " What's the use of a programme for agriculture? The farmers themselves don't know what they want!" Once farmers have produced their own revolution we shall have a very different situation. At Surfleet they can show that revolution: a revolution of which the basis is simply higher soil-fertility produced by the soil itself and without the aid of chemical combines, a more intensive production, a more intelligent marketing of produce, a more intelligent and more equitable relationship between man and master. Today there is only one Surfleet ; but there is no reason why a thousand Surfleets should not operate, bringing fresh produce nearer to the great centres of industrialism, thus breaking down high freightage-costs and bringing fresher and cheaper pro- duce to the public. In Lincolnshire, by the way, they regard the present high prices for vegetables as iniquitous. They are glad of control, as in the case of tomatoes. This spring the profits of growers have been abnormally high—with no benefit to anybody, either pro- ducer or consumer, except E.P.T. Before the war the Lincolnshire grower fought hopelessly against a subsidised-Dutch industry which could export lettuces to this country at far below the cost at which either the Dutch or English growers could produce them. Today he makes profits, says goodbye to them and sees the consumer pay.
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