SOUTH Lakeland farmer Gordon Capstick has returned from a fact-finding trip to Germany with plenty of food for thought, writes Farming Reporter Justin Hawkins.

Mr Capstick, who is deputy chairman of Cumbria NFU, was among a dozen farmers who visited the Wentland region of Germany, on the banks of the River Elbe.

Mr Capstick said that it was impossible to draw direct comparisons between agriculture in the two countries.

"They may only pay around 60 pence for a litre of fuel, but they do not get the red diesel we do in Britain.

It is not really comparing like with like - when you go somewhere like this you find that they have a tax for something we don't and vica versa."

But some differences were inescapable.

For instance, German farmers can get about £ 100 for bull calves, which in Britain are generally destroyed.

"They know they have a market," explained Mr Capstick, "Our processors won't give any guarantee, so by the time we get our bull calves reared, they may not want to buy them and we just cannot afford to take that chance."

Because Germany has joined the Euro, its farmers ge the full benefit od EU support payments where British farmers lose around 20 per cent of their payments because they have to be converted from the weak Euro into strong Sterling.

But what was most clear from the Wentland visit, was that, unlike their British counterparts, German farmers are not in the thrall of the big retailers.

"In Germany they are not selling to the big supermarkets," said Mr Capstick.

One mixed farm visited by the British group grew potatoes as well as pigs and Welsh Black cattle.

The farm takes direct orders by phone, e-mail and fax and dispatches two trucks each week to carry orders to Berlin; another sells 90 per cent of its milk direct to customers including hospitals and nurseries and another milks 30 organic sheep to produce yoghurt, cheese, butter and a Baileys-like alcoholic drink called White Wendish, and also sells 90 per cent direct.

For most farmers, the Wentland co-op will dispose of the remainder.

This independence from powerful buyers is one reason why non-organic milk sells for around 24 pence per litre, and organic for 24p and livestock fetches better prices than in Britain.

Direct selling in Germany reflected a different attitude to food in Germany, said Mr Capstick.

"We used to be producers of food, said Mr Capstick, "now we are just producers of raw materials for the processing industry and that is something they don't do in Germany - over there you still see real hams hanging in shop windows like you used to here.

Traditional food is what we have lost in this country.

Mr Capstick said the dominance of a few giant retailers has been bad for the consumer and producer alike.

"We're always hearing from the supermarkets that they are only providing what the consumer demands," he said, "but it is not what they demand, it is the only choice the supermarkets are offering them - people need to be re-educated about food in Britain.

"The farmers markets are doing a tremendous PR job for farming - they are putting the consumers back in touch with the producers and reminding people what real food ought to taste like."

For the sake of both the consumers and the farmers, Mr Capstick said, Britain needs to get back to a more traditional appreciation of its food.

"To be honest," he said, "things don't have to improve all that much to make a big difference.

My sort of lambs sell for around £35 - It we were getting £40, just an extra £5 or so more, you would not hear a squeak out of us and an extra four pence on a litre of milk would turn things around for a lot of farmers."