THE news that the coffee growers of the world are losing money from growing the crop, and are in danger of starvation, had an unpleasantly familiar ring.

Most of the primary producers in the world are losing money from growing the food on which we all survive. No one, least of all me, would claim that the farmers of Britain are starving. They are clearly not. Many of us are not starving, however, because we can eat what we produce.

Sadly, no one can subsist on coffee alone.

A good number of years ago Elliot Morley, then, as now, a junior agriculture minister, told a group of farmers, of which I was one, that if they could not make money out of keeping pigs, then they should stop keeping pigs. In view of what has happened since it was probably good advice, though not for local employment.

What followed was a piece of advice to turn our farms over to organic production. That was not quite so good, since, as widely publicised recently, most organic producers are not trading profitably. Presently the amount of money UK consumers spend on cat food is greater than they spend on organics. This is not a promising place to start.

Alun Michael, failed leader of the Welsh Assembly and now rural affairs minister, says the Government does understand rural issues, and has lots of rural MPs to prove it.

How does that follow?

They may have rural MPs, they may be able to spin the news, but they certainly do not act to try to tackle rural problems.

On BBC Radio Four's You And Yours programme last Thursday, the interviewer asked why the National Farmers' Union was against the recent 'settlement' of the annual wage round. None of the interviewees were qualified to answer, since none were spokesmen for the NFU.

The reason is that the settlement was a further, very significant rise for those employed in the horticulture sector, which cannot afford the increase.

Farming is being asked, by those who claim to understand rural problems, to compete in a world economy. However, the Government and their friends in European Union administration take every opportunity to act in ways that discriminate against the UK-based farmer.

When there was an opportunity to buy cheap Eastern European fertiliser, the EU changed the rules to increase the price.

When there was a chance of the price of UK wheat rising, the EU intervened to reduce the price at which wheat can be imported.

Others in the world market are not paying our wage rates. The unions say these rates are too low. They probably are, if one lives in western Europe. The problem is that the competition comes from outside western Europe.

If one were to be farming in Eastern Europe, which is only a few hundred miles away, the wages paid here would look like riches. The same applies in southern Africa, which also has climatic advantage. It applies to an even greater extent in the Far East. These places are a short flight away.

The gap between the urban and suburban rich and the rural poor, in whatever industry, is getting wider. Most country dwellers feel more and more isolated and ignored.

Increasingly those born and bred in the country cannot afford houses in their own villages and towns. The recent rise in house prices, while wages do not rise much, has made the situation worse.

If I had marched in London on Sunday, that would have been why. As it was I was too busy at home trying to make a modest living.

It is time the Government realised the problem is real.

Updated: 10:39 Tuesday, September 24, 2002