As a politician at home in Poland and now as the EU farm commissioner, Janusz Wojiechowski does not mince his words.

That was the case when some farm ministers sought to raise with him problems around market distortion. These reflect continuing, but improving, instability on global food markets and for some in the EU distortions from Ukraine enjoying preferential access to the EU for many commodities, which is creating market distortions in the member states close to the border with Ukraine.

Inevitably, ministers wanted more, but the Wojiechowski messages was blunt – lay criticism of market distortions not at Brussels doorstep, but at Russia's for its invasion of Ukraine.

The EU has invested financially and politically to bolster the Ukrainian economy and that policy is not going to change. In a closed session, the farm commissioner criticised Russia's aggression and its blockade, albeit with some temporary easing, of Black Sea ports.

This led to the 'freedom corridors' by land from Ukraine into the EU, creating problems for Hungary, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria and Slovakia.

The message, however, is that you do not close a door on a neighbour and that sacrifices are necessary to block Russia from succeeding in its efforts to annex regions of Ukraine. Those criticising Uranian grain were also reminded the EU needs to import grain and that Ukraine is on track to eventually become an EU member state.

This tough stance by Wojiechowski was not an easy message for someone to deliver whose own country is one of those criticising easy access for Ukraine, but it confirmed the EU was resolute with NATO that Russia cannot be allowed to succeed in Ukraine.

The news in the UK this week is focussed on the coronation and its historical significance. In terms of food and the coronation quiche 'invented' to mark the event, it is hard to see this having the long lasting potential of coronation chicken back in 1953.

This was a dish that introduced people to new flavours and was daringly different in the post-war 1950s, when some food was still rationed. By contrast, quiche is more akin to a quick cafe lunch to make a salad more interesting.

At times of historical events, thoughts turn to how things are now compared to when such an event last took place. When it comes to farming, it is clearly a very different world in terms of productivity, pressures and markets – even if farmers continue to do now what they did 70 years ago.

They produce food to feed a nation and maintain the countryside they enjoy living in. Where the difference lies today is the respect people, and in particular politicians, have for what they do.

Farmers would be reluctant to give up modern technology for the situation of the early 1950s, but they would love to have again the respect the industry enjoyed then.

Back then, farmers had literally 'dug for victory' a few years before, helping the country survive the efforts to isolate its food supply in the war. In the early 1950s, they had a green light for productivity and that stayed lit right up to the 1980s or 1990s.

It is hard to work out what triggered the changes to the situation the industry is now in, where it has lost its influence with politicians. Hopes last year that food security might move up the agenda again have been dashed in the UK and government policy is still that food is a by-product of green policies.

Back in the 1950s, farming was not helped by a surge of imports, but that was no new phenomenon and South American beef and Southern Hemisphere lamb and dairy products co-existed with production here.

That was helped by complex deficiency payments in the farm support system that ended with EU membership. That certainly was a game-changer.

It changed support structures, ended a system rooted in subsidising a cheap food policy and turned agriculture into a potent political issue.

Beyond that, BSE and growing concerns around biodiversity swung the balance against productivity in agriculture. On that basis, Brexit should, as its advocates promised, have been good for farming – but instead the opposite has happened.

Farmers have lost influence and even more public respect in the face of a government ready to sell them out for cheap food and distant trade deals. That is not going to change.

Against that background, the drudgery of the times in 1953 begins to look appealing.