People aren't paying enough for food, says farmer Jeremy Clarkson

Jeremy Clarkson said people in the UK "don't pay enough for their food" and prices should be double what they are.

< p class="dcr-2v2zi4" > The 62-year-old presenter, who bought a farm in Oxfordshire in 2008, made the comments when talking about the struggles of producing food.

The broadcaster's efforts to run his farm were documented for an Amazon Prime series, Clarkson's Farm, which won praise for its cinematography. It documents farm staff telling Clarkson when he is useless and describes the hardships faced by workers during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The series' success has encouraged visitors to flock Clarkson's Diddly Squat Farm Shop to purchase goods such as "cow juice", canola oil, chutneys and jams.

In an interview with the News Agents podcast, Clarkson told presenters Emily Maitlis and Jon Sopel about his efforts to get pigs to mate.

"It's soul destroying, the amount of work," he said. "I was outside last week in sideways rain, very heavy, hard rain, trying to fit a pig's penis into another pig's back, while my girlfriend Lisa was trying to give to another sow looking like she was mated rubbing her back.

"And then someone is going to say, 'How much for your bacon? Why do you charge so much?" Because it costs a fortune." ”. He said: "Lisa and I had to build all their [pig] enclosures, so you're out at night, because it gets dark so early, pounding on fence posts and then stretching the barbed wire and staring at the electric fences, when someone can stand at Tesco and say, "Have you seen the price of those pork chops?" Yes, and they should be more, they should be double what they are. ">Clarkson added, "People just aren't paying enough for their food. The one thing a government will never say is, "Oh, you have to pay more for your food. You're not paying enough."

Maitlis, who joined the BBC in 2001 and presented Newsnight from 2006 until early this year, said, "So Jeremy Clarkson says prices should go up?"

Clarkson replied, " Yes, they should. They should be double what they are, you know, to go out and do this kind of work."

He said the countryside was "beautiful" because of the farmers. "If I did nothing it would be a gigantic bramble bush of 1,000 acres," he added.

On Thursday, Dave Ramsden, the Deputy Governor of the Bank of England, gave a speech on the economy uncertain and unpredictable Briton at Bank of England watchers' conference.

He said he was "extremely aware" that the rise in interest rates interest added to the difficulties facing millions of households and businesses amid the cost of living crisis.

The full interview with Clarkson on the News Agents podcast is available on Global Player.