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- Transporting the grain from the field to the mill.
- Milling
- Transporting flour (and at least 3 other ingredients) from the mill to the bakery
- Baking, packaging
- Transporting the bread from the bakery to the supermarket
- Running the supermarket.
Turns out there is a difference between raw wheat and bread. More news at 8.
When farmers get paid too little for their effort, making these wild comparisons isn’t helping. It seems we’re about a year away from the conclusion “I stubbed my toe. This must be capitalism’s fault.”
What did you stub your toe on? Under which economic system was that object produced? Open your eyes, sheeple!
Whoa whoa go back to sleep you're woke now
And items like Bread and Milk are commonly loss leaders - their priced at a loss or a minimal profit margin by the larger retailers that can afford to make a loss to profit richly elsewhere.
Staples like bread and milk are highly price competitive because there is so much choice - choice in brands but more importantly choice in which supermarket customers go to.
That price pressure goes down the entire production chain. Big companies like Warburtons and Hovis can still profit asbthey benefit from economies of scale, as do the supermarket chains. Big farms also benefit from economies of scale to profit. At every level the small players - farmers, independent bakeries and small retailers struggle to make any profit at all. And at every level wages are kept down.
This is capitalism.
Don’t understand how he can be part of this industry and not understand it at all.
Or he does understand and is playing a victim. Second is more likely.
The second one for sure. But i would also argue that Clarkson himself is only part of the industry to some degree, because primarily he is still in the (quite successful) business of producing television. And while he is certainly learning stuff the actual act of running a farm is still primarily done by others.
On the practical farming side by Kaleb and on the business side by Charlie, who in this case would be the one understanding how the economics between 25p/kg weat and 1.25£ for a loaf of bread work.
I think you’ve got a valid point there. I would also say Clarkson is very “me me me”.
Yeah, this is the guy who successfully played victim when he got fired for punching someone in the face. He knows exactly what he's doing.
Yup. I remember it well.
Did you see the interview during the farmers protest where he got upset that the interviewer pointed out he’d only bought the farm to dodge IHT?
It’s actually kind of crazy all of the rest of that happens for £1.25
Now if we do insulin in the USA, it won’t make so much sense. Capitalism!
Mass production and its effect on unit cost is amazing sometimes. But what is also lost is the transactions between each of those steps. Usually the ones that farm aren't the ones milling, baking, packaging, etc., so there are layers to consider as well, all reducing the unit prices because of the large scale.
- You do not need entire kilo of wheat to make one loaf of bread
That depends on the bread size? From a quick survey of bread recipes online, you need flour and water in a ratio of about 2:1 to 2:1.5. So 1kg of flour gives 1.5kg–1.75kg of dough. I don’t know how much water evaporates during backing, but I think an end product of 1.25kg–1.7kg is a reasonable guess. That’s about a standard sized loaf (to me).
Shovelloaf
What about potatoes?
Those are needed to power the farm computers.