Sale of Coop farms

[david bangs]

The Coop's train crash continues with the proposed sale of the Coop farms.

These total over 50,000 acres. They focus on supply to their own retail, of course, with big fruit and vegetable enterprises.

They are on the most high productivity land, such as the Humberhead Levels (Goole), The Fens (Wisbech), Kent (fruit)...

They have a bunch of farms in Scotland.

The only one I know is the big farm at Down Ampney outside Cricklade, near Cirencester (Vaughan Williams' home village).

I'm not impressed with wot I read on their website. They don't even have a 'no peat' policy, just adhering to the gov't's timescale for run-down of usage. They are clearly backing away from their 'no GM' policy. I'm not reassured by wot they say about palm oil, pesticides, biodiversity...and I don't like their enthusiasm for on-shore wind farms (They'll have four, soon). 

They clearly mimic (badly) the model of the big five retailers (or wotever it is now). However, they are constrained by their membership to ameliorate the worst practices.

I have no doubt that the farms and their staff will suffer badly on sale...and so will the countryside.

They won't even get full value on at least some of the farms because of their extant tenants and lessees...

Can anyone shed any light on all this ??

Dave Bangs
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