I have just listened to the Radio 4 programme "You and Yours" which today invited people to phone in with their thoughts on the future of agriculture. This followed a speech by Hilary Benn at a conference yesterday and anticipated Marianne Fischer Boel's "Health Check" on the CAP. It was also set against the background of a year of animal diseases, floods and drought.
I don't know if any of them will read this but in case they do I want to congratulate the farmers who phoned in to the programme for the mature and factual way in which they explained the problems facing them without whingeing and without antagonising consumers. Almost without exception they did a superb job of putting over the case for agriculture and home production.
They even stayed calm, if frustrated, at Benn's announcement that the time had come for farmers to take responsibility for DEFRA's mistakes in releasing the F&M virus from Pirbright. OK, he didn't put it quite like that but that's what he meant and he must not be allowed to get away with it.
Yes, there were a few non farming critics who complained about the price of food and asked why farming should receive any aid at all. And a presenter asked why farmers did not insure against disease. This was dealt with brilliantly by NFU economist, Carmen Suarez, who pointed out that insurance was not available because of the high level of risk. She did not add, but could have done, that insurance companies are as aware as farmers are of the lack of port security for animal health and of continuing imports of meat from countries like Brazil where F&M is endemic.
This was the biggest worry of farmers at Vale & Wallingford NFU AGM last evening where I gave a talk. Like them I would be appalled if DEFRA made the proposal for farmers to pay hefty levies to pay for government blunders into law. We must fight it with vigour and determination.