Farmers 'vital to Britain's recovery'
Westcountry farmers have been urged to "grow more food, more sustainably" to boost Britain's economic recovery.
Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman told the National Farmers' Union conference that the "Government and agriculture need to work in partnership" for the good of the country.
-
"There is a lot hanging on it," she said. "Environmental protection. The rural economy. And the role of farming in growing and rebalancing our national economy."
She added: "We want to help British farmers to grow more food, more sustainably. We also want to help them to export more. To boost their own businesses. To help boost economic recovery."
In a wide-ranging speech, Mrs Spelman addressed issues such as the need to tackle bovine TB, bureaucracy and reform of the EU's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).
She described food security and climate change as the "most pressing issues of our time".
Her speech, which repeatedly referred to a closer working relationship between ministers and the industry, was well received. However, farmers said the Government had to match its words with action.
Mike Hambly, who farms 400 acres near Callington, in South East Cornwall, said while "encouraging" it was the "delivery afterwards that counts".
The industry faced major uncertainty, he said, with changes to the CAP and farms having to adjust to a new system.
It was also still disadvantaged by complying with food production standards which were not enforced elsewhere.
"UK farmers have embraced higher welfare conditions because they have always had the welfare of their stock at heart," Mr Hambly said.
"What they don't want is to be shortchanged by a Government which lacks the ability, the power or the spine to prevent imports that aren't produced to those standards, ending up on consumer shelves."
The Environment Secretary said the Food Exports Action Plan, launched last month, showed farming was a "vital part of an export-led recovery". She added: "Our Made in Britain brand has such cachet.
"That's why we've been working hard for country of origin labelling. That's why we are encouraging more protected food names. Promote this brand. Capitalise on it. Government will back you all the way."
She also told delegates in Birmingham that sustainable agriculture needed to be at the heart of the major environmental summit in Brazil this summer, along with reform of EU policy.
She said: "We have to move faster in improving our productivity and improving our environmental performance.
"So it is essential we put sustainable agriculture at the heart of both the summit in Rio in June and the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy.
"The challenges of food security and climate change are among the most pressing issues of our time, so we can't just leave them for future generations to deal with."
Ian Johnson, spokesman for the National Farmers' Union in the South West, said the industry needed to be freed from a "strait-jacket".
"Farmers want to have the shackles taken off so they can push their businesses forward," Mr Johnson said. "Otherwise we are going to end up back in Thomas Hardy's day and that will be no good for the economy."
11 Comments
View all
by homerjay
Wednesday, February 22 2012, 10:33PM
“Our self appointed ''defender of nature and the countryside'' will stand against the concrete carbuncles destroying our green fields...oh, hang on...http://tinyurl.com/69pv9xg”
by Eddie_PZ
Wednesday, February 22 2012, 9:56PM
“As a small farmer I knaw the best crop is houses. That's why I'm waiting anxtiously for a relaxation of planning regulations and I can cover my land with a crop I know will bring me in a good return. Stop pussyfooting arround mrs Spellman and let us build where we want to.”
by Red_Diesel
Wednesday, February 22 2012, 8:24PM
“From what I know of Spelman's speech, it was Motherhood and Apple Pie stuff - but really rubbish.
Umm. I mean she wants the UK to be more self-sufficient in food (and who could object to that?) and she wants more exports (who can object to that?).
Umm - but you can't have both of these at the same time.
Tory party twaddle.”
by Baby_boomer
Wednesday, February 22 2012, 7:27PM
“I spy the usual anti-European twaddle from the boring Apoxonem who seems to use his postings as nothing more than a platform to spout off on behalf of the Poujadistas in backward looking UKIP.”
by josdave
Wednesday, February 22 2012, 7:05PM
“Our farmers are perfewctly capable of growing more food than they do it's this ridiculous EU policy of paying subsidies for not producing food that is to blame. The only ones making any money out of the CAP are the big farmers while the small ones who have been farming for generations are being drivenm out of business by EU policy and the stranglehold supermarkets have over the food industry whereby it seems acceptable to pay a farmer less for his milk than it costs him to produce it.”
by dplatt2000
Wednesday, February 22 2012, 3:15PM
“"She also told delegates in Birmingham that sustainable agriculture needed to be at the heart of the major environmental summit in Brazil this summer, along with reform of EU policy."
What we need to realise is that the term "sustainable" is merely a current buzz word to invoke the minds of the general public who want their government to be seen as doing something. With current farming methods this will never be achievable - escalating oil prices and a rapidly changing climate affect every single part of the journey from seed to the food on your table. If "food security and climate change" are the "most pressing issues of our time" as Mrs Spelman says, then we should be addressing HOW we go about producing our food and WHAT we are producing, not the bureaucracy that surrounds the exporting and welfare of food and so on and so on.
If you want to actually do something about it and not just throw around fashionable words, then encourage a new future of small scale biodynamic farms and allow planning permission for smallholdings/commmunities that wish to follow permaculture and organic principles. STOP growing vast swathes of monoculture crops that rely on machinery to plough, plant, harvest, package, transport and dispose of the food, destroying the soil, depleting it of any nutrients it may have had left in it, and then spraying hideous oil-based chemicals that poison us, our children and the earth in the hope it might "help the crops grow" and "keep pests away".
This is not a problem to *****-foot around - it is happening right now before our very eyes. If Israel goes into Iran, and sanctions push up oil even further, we'll be wandering around Tesco et al wondering how it got to be a luxury to buy a broccoli (which incidentally get sent halfway around the country to be packaged and then branded as "cornish" before ending up back on our shelves (oooooooh, thats local!)) If oil ran out tomorrow, there would be complete chaos within days...bring back and encourage self supporting villages, small scale cooperatives, subsistence farming, oraganic gardening, farmers markets...this is the future...and it has to start now...”
by Red_Diesel
Wednesday, February 22 2012, 12:29PM
“If farmers are to produce more food, they will need more land. And the obvious way to get more land is to cull and eat the 1.3million horses that roam the fields of England.
OK. I'll get my own coat and see myself out........”
by Peter_sims
Wednesday, February 22 2012, 11:01AM
“What? No word from Mr Haddock? Oh yeah thats right, he only pipes up to promote his farm shop...boring.”
by Apoxonem
Wednesday, February 22 2012, 10:59AM
“"We need to withdraw from the CAP entirely and the only way to do that is to vote UKIP. The chief beneficiaries of the CAP are the great farming corporations such as the CO-OP and the very rich hereditary land owners, including our own Royal family. Readers can learn more about the CAP and CFP by visiting http://tinyurl.com/7fun3yd and http://tinyurl.com/7r2h7xx A word of advice to Baby_boomer - take care; there are laws against libel and slander in this country."
Sorry people, the links might not work well. The sites are farmsubsidy.org and fishsubsidy.org”
by Vox_Populi
Wednesday, February 22 2012, 10:57AM
“Perhaps our Councillors could bear this in mind when considering the proposals to build on agricultural land on the outskirts of Truro mainly for the benefit of Waitrose and the 'Eco-Prince' who uses them to flog his over-price biscuits.”