We need a sensible bill and co-ordinated effort on standards

Is this summer? It’s hard to believe that it is with these low temperatures, windy conditions and lashings of rain. The jet stream is diving south of the UK bringing this horrible weather and it looks as if it is set to continue into August. The whole of northwest Europe is in the same boat as the southeast fries at around 40C. There is hope that there might be a return to summer later in August; let’s hope so.

Anyone with hay to make is now looking at some messy fields with huge growth due to the rain and weeds having a field day. Silage is being made and some haylage when a dry day or two allows, but some spectacular ruts to be seen when bales are removed. Mowing behind the cattle as they graze at Tillington brings on green aftermaths; not something we are used to in August.

In the southern hemisphere poor flowering in vineyards is resulting in higher wine prices with New Zealand yields down 30 per cent. Increased demand due to the pandemic is placing pressures on wineries around the world and as a result of the low yields in New Zealand, Chile has sold out of 2020 whites and some 2021 vintages also. The prolonged frosts in April are also expected to have caused significant damage in French regions and elsewhere.

In Australia however, wine prices have fallen following China’s 218 per cent import tariff in their trade war. Globally there is a shortage of shipping containers which has increased transport prices to record levels. Transport is a theme we know all about in the UK and covered in this column recently. Having accused the industry of crying wolf, government is now panicking over both transport and the shortage of workers.

A testing scheme which excludes 10,000 food workers from isolation will go some way to alleviating the current problem but the problem of labour shortages since Brexit is there to be seen as Arla, Tesco and Asda compete to offer HGV drivers signing-on fees in a desperate bid to keep shelves stocked and milk delivered. Sausage brand Heck has taken matters into its own hands, delivering shipments itself and giving factory workers a six per cent pay rise as they are now in very short supply.

While this is all well and good it is only a sticking plaster and no doubt the temporary fixes must find their way through to price increases. There is intense pressure on government to come up with a solution and word on the street is that a seasonal scheme for overseas HGV drivers akin to the one in agriculture is being discussed. However that has to get passed Priti Patel at the Home Office!

In the meantime the National Pig Association is pressing for compensation as pig numbers build up on farms due to labour shortages in abattoirs, processing and trade issues. The delays result in heavier pigs which are penalised on price for being out of specification, huge feed costs incurred and potential welfare issues on farms due to overstocking. A combination of Covid and Brexit are to blame for the staff shortages and real pressure on the Home Office to add meat-processing workers to the shortage occupation list.

Growers are now calling on Defra to fill the void left by their own vote to not pay the levy to AHDB! They are asking for an Australian and New Zealand type research agency with a smaller statutory levy and a larger voluntary levy. The Growers’ Better Levy Group is made up of 36 businesses in the horticulture and potato sectors and it aims to ensure AHDB staff are not lost to the industry, halting projects deemed vital for the industry.

With labour shortages and weather hitting growers hard of late, this is a sector which has innovated its way out of challenges in the past but while the large businesses voted to keep AHDB, they were outnumbered by small ones. By the time MPs return to parliament there will be but a few months to decide where future funding for R&D will come from and scientists are already leaving the sector which does not bode well.

Given that the vote to ditch the levy and AHDB, none of this should be a surprise and something needs to happen soon or it could ultimately threaten future viability of UK fresh produce at a time we all need to eat more healthily. A combination of a few who hated paying and the thought they could do better, combined with poor handling of the vote and crucially holding it during a pandemic where no face-to-face conversations could take place is responsible for this potential crisis.

There is a great deal of fuss about the animal sentience bill make its way through the Houses of Parliament. Since leaving the EU, that bastion of all things evil, especially red tape and bureaucracy; we are no longer covered by Article 13 of the Lisbon Treaty which recognises animals as sentience beings. All that is needed is to recognise that animals are sentient in law, but as we again show who is and have always been the masters of red tape, beaurocracy and gold plating; this has blown up into quite a row.

The Conservative Party is split over this matter with Lord Goldsmith, aided by powerful allies and friends on the one side and the free traders and big donors on the other. Media coverage puts farmers and the hunting, shooting, fishing in the mix, and correctly stating that Goldsmith intends this bill to go much further than EU law. We do of course need an animal sentience bill and it will put us back as an ‘A’ in welfare terms globally; our historic place.

However, this poorly drafted bill risks opening the door to campaigners seeking to outlaw lawful activities and wrapping great swathes of our economy from farming to medicine in further layers of red tape with possible repercussions on pest control, animal science and countryside pursuits. No one denies that there is more to be done in farming on the welfare front due to the disparity between the best and those who struggle (some of whom should not be farming), but we must safeguard against exporting great chunks of our industry by unilateral action.

We import eggs from countries which bought our old battery cages, we import pig meat still reared in farrowing crates, and we ban fois gras as a symbolic gesture that it would not be allowed to be produced here while importing pig meat from castrated pigs; also not allowed here. Exporting welfare and climate change while setting high standards here is the biggest hypocrisy imaginable.

We would be far better making sure our (very high) animal welfare standards in this country are met. The Red Tractor scheme does a sterling job in this area and is disliked for it by some farmers; ironically the loudest voices in wanting the NFU to shout about UK high standards. We all know it, and we all suffer while it is allowed to continue. What is needed is a sensible sentience bill and a co-ordinated effort in our industry to bring those who are not farming to proper standards to book.