Jeremy Clarkson: ‘People don’t pay enough for food’

Despite the cost of living crisis, Jeremy Clarkson has called for consumers to pay more for food to support British farmers.

For Clarkson, the revelation of how difficult it is for British farmers to make ends meet has been prompted by his own trials and tribulations at his Diddly Squat Farm in Oxfordshire, which is the subject of Amazon Prime series Clarkson’s Farm.

Speaking to Jon Sopel and Emily Maitlis on The News Agents podcast, he discussed the threat avian flu is posing to farmers, and suggested that most consumers do not appreciate the time, money and effort that goes into agriculture.

“People simply don’t pay enough for their food. The one thing a government will never say is ‘you’ve got to pay more for your food’, so they don’t…” Clarkson went on to say that prices should be double what they are.

Later, Clarkson, while recounting the challenges of trying get pigs to mate in the pouring rain, he said: “And then somebody’s going to go: ‘How much for your bacon? Why’re you charging so much?’ Because it costs a fortune to do it!”

Perhaps surprisingly, Clarkson did not go on to talk about his Hawkstone beer brand, with its slogan of “difficult to make, easy to drink” echoing the sentiments expressed in the interview.

A report by the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) from October this year noted that, in response to record food inflation (13.9% at the time it was published), consumers are changing both what they shop for, and where they shop: “They are cutting down on certain products and switching to cheaper alternatives. Be it moving from branded to own label, premium to value ranges, the shift has been significant with sales of the very cheapest, value own-label ranges up by +33%.”

The report also cited Kantar data which suggested that discount supermarket Aldi had gained 1.65 million customers in the 12 weeks up to 2 October.

While Clarkson has successfully used his media profile to raise awareness of the issues British farmers face, his efforts to defy the local council and open a restaurant have been much less fruitful.