"Little" injustices that don't make the news

I thought the small farmers around here had it bad.

Take my lovely neighbours, for example.  Enrique the cacique developed the same back problem as me about 2 years ago.  He’s in his late 50s.  Having seen what I was like after my operation, and how long it took me to recover he decided, not surprisingly, to avoid the operation at all costs.  Among his various reasons was the fact that he and his wife had a herd of 30 dairy cows, and no children to lend a hand.  Although farmers in Spain are now entitled to sick pay (only a percentage of their earnings), there is no provision for someone to come and look after their animals while they are sick (which obviously the farmers cannot pay when their own earnings barely cover their costs, much less provide money to employ help).  Uncared for dairy cows quickly die.  And then the farmers are prosecuted for cruelty to animals.  In fact, their entitlement to sick pay counts for nothing without back-up help.  Ergo, dairy farmers cannot be sick.  So how would he have coped with one year at least off sick?  Plus, his wife was kicked in the knee by a cow some years ago and despite three operations since then, has never been able to walk properly again (no work-related accident compensation here for farmers, let alone back-up help), so she would not have been able to cope with looking after a disabled husband and a herd of dairy cows on her own.

They refused our offers of help, knowing that our ignorance of dairy farming would probably result in more problems rather than less.

So he decided to take early retirement.

Although I had seen the injustice of the sick pay situation, I was astounded by the cruelty of the retirement system for small dairy farmers.  Enrique applied primarily for the right to retire, rather than retirement pay (though that as well).  Now, you and I can say “I retire” whenever we wish, down tools and find a way to survive.  Not so dairy farmers, whether or not they are also applying for a pension.  There’s their milk quota to be reallocated before they can sell their cows, and until that quota is reallocated and their cows sold, clearly they cannot retire.  It took Spanish bureaucracy ONE YEAR to reallocate their milk quota.  ONE YEAR of being forced to continue working every day of the week, milking cows, feeding cows, leading cows out to pasture, bringing cows back in at night, ploughing and fertilizing and sowing fields and harvesting forage for cows, storing forage…All extremely painful and harmful activities for two physically crippled people.

They are now retired, and finally enjoying a cow-free existence.  Enrique’s back problem, however, was not helped by an extra year of enforced labour, and he suffers a lot.

So I thought that small dairy farmers in Spain had it bad. 

Then I read this post about tenant farmers in Scotland at French Leave, this one at GentleOtter, and this one at St. Bloggie de Riviere.  I am appalled.  How is it possible that in a supposedly first world country in the 21^st century, landlords are not required to maintain the properties they rent in hygienic and habitable conditions?  How is it possible that their tenants are penalised for their landlords’ negligence?

If this bothers you, you can write to Alex Salmond here, here and here.

If you think that this doesn’t affect you, consider this: gadgets, cars, clothes and even economic crises are unimportant compared to unpolluted air, water and food.  I think we tend to forget this, and the inexorable move towards agro-industry and away from small-scale farming is unlikely to ensure any of these.