Despite these positive online initiatives, there are plenty of sites on the web that reflect the depressed nature of the UK farming industry. Many farmers are literally in despair about how to make a living after being subjected to a barrage of crises they feel unable to control. Sites such as Farming Help , offer links to online rural crisis networks that offer emotional help to farmers who, in some extreme cases, have been driven to the verge of suicide as they do not know how they will support their families. Stephen Howe, the editor of Farmers' Weekly, says the crisis gripping UK farming is one of the reasons farmers are showing signs of being more responsive to the new solutions offered by the internet. Everyone is concerned about profit margins.
Margins are very tight or non-existent in most cases.
Farmers will get involved with anything that could improve the situation. Howe says support for the internet is across the board and not just restricted to younger farmers. It's not just entrepreneurs who are eventually hoping to reap big profits from agricultural sites, farmers themselves are also getting involved. There are three farmers behind Sheepsmart , which provides sheep market prices in real time. Simon Barnes, who owns a 365-acre organic farm, north of Dumfries in Scotland, says he volunteered to help with the site because of the shortage of easily accessible market information.