'Farmers should be appreciated', 'Spalding Flower Parade could survive without tulips'

Having spent 60-plus years involved with farming and the food production chain, I believe I understand it reasonably well.

In my experience, farmers do farm to make a profit – however, during that process they also are very aware of the environment and the consequences of their actions on it – it would be extremely short sighted if they weren’t because they rely on it, as we all do.

I obviously don’t know the financial background of every farming business but I do know that if they are dealing with supermarkets then their actions are very much dictated by the demands of the commodity buyer.

The consequences of failing to meet an order are not good for both the farmer as well as their employees.

We all benefit from relatively inexpensive food in the UK – especially if you are willing to use raw materials – as many have discovered during lockdown.

There was a time – approximately 40 years ago – when there were many smaller (often less efficient) farmers who could run a successful business by selling to wholesale markets. Sometimes prices were very good, sometimes not and crops had to be left in fields.

Supermarkets usually provide an outlet but as many may have noticed they have driven many good farmers out of the industry with the result often being larger and possibly more professional operations.

I don’t expect anything to change dramatically and am as disappointed as G Matthews that some wildlife numbers are decreasing but farmers are simply a cog in a food chain who are trying to operate profitably in the current retail environment and perhaps we ought to appreciate them a little next time we pick up UK-grown vegetables in our nearby multinational store.

John F Constable

Spalding

Event could still survive without tulips

It’s so sad the Tulip Parade withered away and finally closed in 2013. My maternal side of the family came from Deeping, Rose Ellen and Charles William Clare doing the baking at Oldhams Bakery for years. My mum Patricia and her sisters Margaret and Jeniffer often drove the old Bedford CA bread delivery van around Deeping.

My grandfather was one of seven brothers who used to work on a farm at the junction of Crowland Road just outside Deeping St Nicholas.

During the 1970s we used to go over to Spalding Common every year to see Aunt Suzie, who lived in the old row of terraced council houses. Then in the mid 1970s they built the new council houses at Stennet Avenue and she lived there.

We used to go and watch the Tulip Parade every year.

My point is that despite the loss of the tulip industry at Spalding that doesn’t mean the parade has to stop.

Why do they not create floats and decorate them with fibre optic tulips that change colours during the Parade?Have you never seen the Blackpool Illuminations and the trams? Blackpool have been doing it since 1879.

Mark Burton

Chatteris