Government needs to prioritise domestic food production

The NFU Conference held last week at the ICC in Birmingham was full to the gunnels; no spare seat. There was also a frission in the air, the sort that is present during NFU leadership elections and an upset is expected. This time it was due to the government and the state the country is in and an expectation that change is on its way. Agriculture depends heavily on politicians in this country as in every other developed country and that can be good or bad and at present it is bad; very bad.

NFU President Minette Batters (pictured) set the scene with her opening address by first acknowledging the war in Ukraine and the terrible toll on civilians and fellow farmers who struggle to produce despite animals being killed, fields mined and crops destroyed.

She also asked us all to remember Lord Plumb; Henry Plumb who had been the NFU’s most popular and best remembered President, who died last year.

Minette went on to describe the unwelcomed political turmoil of the last year and the consequences; the volatility and uncertainty which are the greatest risk to farm businesses today. Critically these consequences are felt far beyond the farm, they are felt across the natural environment and in struggling households across the country.

Labour shortages and soaring energy bills are hitting the poultry industry, the pig industry and horticulture.

Other sectors are affected by high inflation, the phasing out of direct payments, against the background of inputs rising 50 per cent since 2019; fertilizers up 169 per cent, energy by 79 per cent, animal feed by 57 per cent.

Egg production has fallen to the lowest level in nine years which meant that a billion fewer eggs were produced in 2022 compared to 2019. Salad crops such as tomatoes and cucumbers will fall to the lowest level since 1985 and NFU’s survey of livestock farmers show that 40 per cent of beef farmers and 36 per cent of sheep farmers are planning to reduce numbers this year due to input costs and lack of profitability.

When we look at agriculture, globally, in November last year the UN estimated that the world’s population reached eight billion, having passed seven billion as recently as 2011. That works out as 200,000 additional people on the planet every single day who need to be fed and need fuel and fibre.

There are three lessons we can take from all this, first as the global population continues to rise, and parts of the planet become less suited to producing the food we eat, we have an opportunity, and a duty, to get the best out of our maritime climate and we should be recognised by government as food producers first.

Secondly, in the face of climate change we should be unwavering in our commitment to achieving Net Zero, and contributing to our energy security through on-farm renewables generation.

Thirdly, we should never take our food security for granted.

Food security is not the same as self-sufficiency – we will always rely on imports to some degree, and it is sensible to ensure diversity of supply, but food security also means ensuring our food is safe to eat, that it can be distributed efficiently, and that it remains affordable. All of which points to prioritising domestic production. The rhetoric of successive governments that ‘we are a wealthy country… we can just import our food’ must be exposed as naïve in the extreme in a rapidly changing and challenging world.

During his leadership bid, the Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, committed to a new food security target, including a statutory duty to monitor and report on annual domestic food production levels. If this were to happen it would be the most significant commitment on food production since the 1947 Agriculture Act.

This time next year, as we gather for Conference 2024, we will almost certainly be heading towards a General Election, with manifestos being finalised, and politicians getting into campaign mode. The challenge was then thrown down by the President of the NFU; the clock is ticking, time is almost up for this government to start walking the talk.

It is sad to report that the Secretary of State Therese Coffey failed miserably to either rise to that challenge or win over NFU Conference. NFU Conference unlike many other conferences is unfailingly tolerant and respectful, with no more than a murmur of disagreement or disapproval when speakers are on the stage. There Coffey, in my experience of more than 25 conferences, came nearest to being booed off stage.

She refused to take any blame on behalf of government for the predicament we are all in. She said that government cannot be blamed for the weather in Spain which has caused the bare supermarket shelves, whilst we all knew that our farmers did not plant tomatoes and cucumbers as usual in November due to the high cost of gas, delaying planting until February. Retailers would not pay the extra cost and government would not subsidise the gas.

The Secretary of State refused to acknowledge that Brexit had a huge effect on transportation of that produce into the UK. She then enraged farmers in the audience by disagreeing that there has been market failure in the pig and poultry industry due to shortage of labour in processing plants due to Brexit. It was quite uncomfortable as question after question from farmers in the audience explained the issues and were all met with dismissal and some aggression at times.

Many farmers are traditionally by and large Conservative voters and the rural vote will be crucial in the next election. Enraged farmers at lunch told me that if the Conservatives are trying to lose the next election, they are making a damned good job of it.

Many are fed up with the infighting and totally discredited Boris Johnson and Liz Truss with their idiotic supporters hampering Rishi Sunak’s honest and genuine attempts to put things right; they will not be forgiven.

When asked if they would vote Labour the answer overwhelmingly was, anything is better than this; things cannot be worse. The Conservatives are no longer competent to manage the economy and they have abandoned farming in pursuit of some Brexit utopia or power struggle

Many farmers voted for Brexit and there was a split between those who have changed their minds and are angry at having being duped and those who are enraged that the government have utterly failed to make it work.

Sir Keir Starmer was at Conference and listened to intently to see what he had to say as the next potential Prime Minister. He was mobbed by the press as if he had won already.

He was at pains to tell us how the Labour Party has changed and how he wants to work in partnership with us all. He made one bold promise; at least 50 per cent of public procurement will be from British farms and that really caught everyone’s attention.

Again chatting to farmers, most said that they were certainly impressed with what he had to say, but they want more detail. There were questions as to whether he really will follow the science and if the partnership he talked about will be real. They say that governments lose elections rather than the opposition winning them and if that is true it will take a miracle to save the Tories.