Farming prospects

Charles Abel reports

CLUB Chairman John Lee welcomed The Farmers Club’s largest audience for more than two-and-a-half years as Victoria Prentis, Defra Minister of State for Farming, Fisheries and Food, addressed the latest Monday Evening Lecture on a fine Spring evening in central London.

Refreshingly frank, and reassuring, her talk in the Club’s elegant Farmers Suite was underpinned by a determined insistence that British agriculture had a bright future and that Defra was listening to the sector’s views as farming transitioned to a new way of working.

A Club member from age 18, with a family farming background at Aynho near Banbury, Ms Prentis is a qualified barrister, MP for the Conservative seat of North Oxfordshire and daughter of Life Peer Lord Boswell. She met husband Sebastian at Cambridge University and both their daughters are also members of the Farmers Club.

Food security, support payments, labelling, retail prices and regen ag were all touched upon, with a vigorous question session before discussion continued in the Shaw Room and Bar over drinks and Chef’s treats.

Paying tribute to the late Lord Plumb, who had focused so relentlessly on the future of the farming industry, Ms Prentis recalled his fight for realistic food pricing in the 1970s. He had lamented calves selling for the price of a Sun newspaper, insisting the British public “no longer had a divine right to be cheaply fed.”

It was a theme Ms Prentis focused on, noting the rising costs of fertiliser, animal feed and energy, but also the cost of living crisis for the nation as a whole. The goal was affordable food, but it had to be produced sustainably, and that meant farmers had to be paid a fair price. A key part of her job is retailer relationships, she noted.

Covid and war in Ukraine had brought food security into sharp focus, she continued. The world’s grain stocks of over 200 million tonnes needed moving to meet demand, especially in the most vulnerable countries.

She said the UK should be aware of its own good fortune on food security. In March she was the first British MP to take a Ukrainian refugee into her home. War made clear to those who had not been thinking in such terms that domestic food production does provide national food resilience. “It is something this government understands.”

The peak in self-sufficiency of 75%, from a low of 40% during the Second World War, had changed relatively little, despite big changes in diet, she noted. The UK is currently around 70% self-sufficient in foods that can be produced in the UK. “Defra keeps an eye on these figures all the time.”

She felt the UK’s temperate climate was very much to be prized given climate change and a growing world population. Government was on a mission to encourage Buy British food, which the Food Strategy White Paper would emphasise. “It sets out the government’s thinking on changes to the whole food system, including challenging issues on public procurement, and environmental and welfare labelling.”

Food production is a key part of the government’s ‘levelling up’ agenda, she added. Economic activity in the sector exceeds automotive and aerospace combined, with a good distribution across the UK, and a strong focus on local identity.

As farming transitions to a new way of working, with a new support structure, especially in England, she wanted farmers to spend less time ‘form-filling and measuring’. Alongside the public goods of carbon, climate, environment and nature, the public needed to hear more about food production, she stressed.

New support schemes will be developed with farmers over the full seven years of transition. “We’re only in year two so far, and we’ll probably never know the final version of the various schemes, it is evolution not revolution, and will depend on what we learn along the way.”

She urged farmers to sign up for schemes now. “There are options to get involved, especially around soils and stewardship. Schemes will be stackable and you won’t be penalised for being early adopters.”

Alongside a full review of the pig supply chain, where 40% of what was consumed was still non-UK produced, she said ‘considerable’ work was still needed on supporting marginal farms, especially in the moorlands and uplands; the relationship between landlords and tenants; protecting green finance from green washing; and ensuring the four nations don’t allow their desire to be different to get in the way of good policy.

Challenged around the lack of support for commercial farming Ms Prentis insisted regen ag was the way to go, the only way to persuade Government to support the sector, and the only way to justify that support with the public. “You know what regen ag looks like, and that’s the direction of travel.”

She recognised the severity of farm labour issues and said 40,000 working visas would be available this year. Similarly, science-led, evidence-based decisions around product approvals were needed, including neonicotinoids for oilseed rape.

On foreign trade deals she insisted standards should be observed, including stocking densities. “We need to be all over them, as a regulatory baseline, which is enforced. Country of origin labelling is a key concern.”

• George Eustice, Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, is due to address the Club at the next Monday Evening Lecture on 31st October 2022.