“F armers certainly don’t want to see food poverty – we want to see food that’s affordable,” says Ian Harvey, a dairy farmer. “But at the same time, we want to ensure that there’s absolute fairness throughout the supply chain.” Farms are under extraordinary financial pressure, he says.
On Wiggaton Farm, near North Petherwin in the North Cornwall constituency, about 170 Holstein friesian and Ayrshire cows are nosing between tufts for the sweet new grass they like the most. “It’s amazing how they don’t pull the grass out of the ground,” Harvey says. “They wrap their tongue around it and then tear it off.
” Harvey’s farm is at the start of the food supply chain and the beginning of the Guardian’s journey through the rural constituency to the small town of Camelford, where hundreds of people rely on the community larder, an open-access food bank. The dreamy impression of this beautiful corner of England taken away by summer tourists is a far cry from the cost of living crisis faced by local people. The Conservatives are defending a 16,000 majority, bloated by now-faded enthusiasm for Brexit, and while people are mostly shy about their voting intentions, the bookmakers have the Liberal Democrats odds-on to win.
Harvey’s cows send about 3,500 litres of milk a day to the UK’s biggest cheese factory nearby to produce Cathedral City and Davidstow cheddar. “The cost of living crisis has put pressure on the value of our end products. We’ve seen peo.