It’s time to look after the small guy

THE first thing approaching good sense I have heard emerging from the Government in a very long time caught my attention this week.

It was the suggestion that some element of direct support should be maintained for ‘small’ farmers.

It came from the chairman of the Efra committee, Sir Robert Goodwill, who said he intends to look at the idea.

Well, Sir Robert, keep looking hard, because I can already see an alternative view.

One where, if small farmers do not continue to receive some degree of direct support, they will be wiped out in their thousands.

Small farms did disproportionately poorly when we received areabased EU payments. The amounts they received were derisory compared with the millions raked in by the barley barons and the owners of huge estates - both classes far better placed than the small man to weather adverse economic conditions.

And they were already viewing George Eustice’s proposals for a post-Brexit UK farming policy with severe misgiving because they simply weren’t drawn up with the small farmer in mind.

Not only would the smaller farms be unable to deliver much in the way of public goods in return for the very meagre rewards that were being proffered; they wouldn’t be able to give up a single productive square yard for tree planting or rewilding or anything else - because every square yard was going to have to deliver some kind of production-based return if the enterprise was to keep its head above water.

Worse: many smaller farms are livestock units and likely to be directly hit by the shoddy little deals the Government has struck - despite (worthless) assurances of safeguards being in place - to import meat produced more cheaply and to lower welfare standards from New Zealand and Australia and elsewhere, the only and inevitable result of which will be to force down UK market prices.

Yet in areas such as the south west it’s the small farmers who are the backbone of the industry. It’s the small livestock farms which are already delivering far more environmental benefits than prairie-scale cereal farmers.

It’s the small farms whose activities help to shape and maintain the diverse and attractive landscapes that the tourists flock to this region to enjoy, bringing their money with them.

When was the last time you heard of tourists driving to admire a 500acre barley field in East Anglia?

Yet no-one, apart from the Tenant

When was the last time you heard of tourists driving to admire a 500-acre barley field in East Anglia?

Farmers Association, has been speaking up for small farms.

Yet collectively as a sector our small farms represent a vast body of expertise in land management, livestock rearing and food production.

They are the ones who supply the burgeoning producers’ markets with a huge diversity of products - meat, vegetables and fruit of incomparable quality - for the benefit of consumers grown weary of the bland uniformity of supermarket offerings.

They are the ones who are constantly innovating, developing new products and ways of doing things, and striving for excellence.

What sort of a country would we be contemplating if we lost all that?

Like I said, keep looking, Sir Robert.