Food for Thought

The issue of bovine TB is always top of the agenda at the NFU Conference and this year is no exception.

But what is new is the level of frustration at what farmers see as a lack of action by government.

DEFRA secretary Hilary Benn was heckled by an audience member as he tried to answer questions about the government's strategy on TB. There were also some low-level jeers as he explained that he had to consider the "public acceptability" of sanctioning a badger cull.

It would seem that farmers are no longer prepared to hold back when it comes to explaining the problems they are facing because of bovine TB.

There have been rumours about Prime Minister Gordon Brown making an appearance at the NFU Centenary Conference for a couple of weeks - but as ever when a PM is involved, getting a definitive answer is impossible because of security reasons.

But having just arrived at the event it is looking like it will happen. It says so in today's Guardian (so it must be true!) Perhaps more tellingly, the notes for tonight's black tie dinner make it clear that you won't be allowed entry without a 'dinner ticket'.

When Mr Brown does arrive, the big question is how he will be received. Remember the Women's Institute?

David Richardson has his doubts about how well DEFRA spends his money after it emerged that DEFRA has shelled out £11,000 on posters of its ministerial team over the past five years.

But MP Mark Hoban, who asked the question originally, has unearthed some even more interesting facts.

Asked what DEFRA-branded products had been procured over the past five years, the department was forced to admit to 20,000 travel wallets, 20,000 pens and...1000 travel toothbrush sets.

Which subject is currently dominating the FWiSpace discussion forums? Is it bluetongue, is it single farm payments, is it rising input costs?

No.

The US elections. Who'd have thought?

So Peter Hain has decided to resign as a result of the furore over donations for his deputy leader campaign.

What is this going to mean for the Cabinet? On the FWiSpace discussion forums someone has already asked whether this could mean that Hilary Benn gets moved on.

Senior FW reporter Andrew Watts is an unhappy man:

Attending the Conservative Party Conference used to be a straightforward affair. But this year things changed.

Only the guys at HQ overlooked the need to amend the instructions on the media application form.

This is my third visit to the Tory Party Conference and I am now well versed in the lengthy process of applying for media accreditation. Having sent my completed form off for processing in June and booked a hotel I let my attention be grabbed by, first, the floods, then foot-and-mouth and most recently, bluetongue. In previous years a similar approach has served me well.

I arrived in Blackpool at four o’clock on Sunday afternoon having driven 265 miles from Surrey in just over four hours. After checking-in at St Andrew’s guest house run by the very friendly Geoff and Jane, I strolled off to the Accreditation Centre to collect my pass. Pushing my way past the two hour queue that stretched out the door of the St John Evangelist church to reach the media-only booth with a queue of one brought me a smile - but this soon vanished.

Imagine the sense of confusion when the young assistant informed me that my application had been delayed because I failed to include a photograph with the form. “But I ticked the box at the foot of the form which said I didn’t need to supply a new picture if I had attended a conference in the past two years,” I explained. “But the rules have changed and you should have sent a new picture,” came the reply.

I decided that it would be pointless to argue this obvious contradiction and instead agreed to sit for my new picture. This was then sent to Lancashire Police for it to verify that I am indeed who I claim to be. It seems my passport is insufficient, despite it being a necessary form of identification to claim the pass. At this point I was told to return at 9pm.

Farming’s a tough industry, full of tough people. You have to be to cope with the ups and downs. Feed wheat at £130/t and foot and mouth, in the same week! Drought stricken crops in April and a deluge in July! Most people would simply give up.

But the great thing about farming is that tough people grapple with tough times and succeed. The only worry is that tough people are getting worn down by people who seem to lack commitment, who have jobs that are 9-5, who invest no personal equity in their occupations. All too often they seem to clash horrifically with the enthusiasts who invest everything in doing the job properly.

Maybe that helps explain the frustration welling up in farmhouses across the land, as the inability of government agencies.......

WHEN dread livestock disease foot and mouth led last Friday’s Ten O’Clock News Farmers Weekly journalists knew it would be no ordinary weekend – not for farmers, not for farming and not for farm journalists either.

For many it was an unwelcome rewind to March 2001 and the devastating foot and mouth epidemic that followed, claiming 7m animals, costing the UK £8bn and forcing many farmers from the industry.

Within half an hour a core team of FW journalists was hard at work, establishing facts and loading information onto the FWi web-site. Our new FWiSpace on-line forum was used to field questions from worried farmers. Journalists chased contacts until well after midnight.

First thing Saturday the team reconvened in FW’s south London newsroom. Newsgathering

Unlike is predecessor, David Miliband's move to the Foreign Office is a deserved promotion.

After the complete horlicks Margaret Beckett made of the job, Mr Miliband has shown an aptitude for rural issues and a willingness to drive through change. His task on the international stage will be a big one.

But how big? Solving problems in the Middle East might seem a relative breeze compared with dealing with thousands of disgruntled farmers waiting for unforgivably late SFP cheques.

The question now is who will be next in the hotseat at DEFRA and will they have the energy for the farming sector which Mr Miliband displayed?

It will need a skilled operator to ensure farming won't be worse off following Mr Miliband's move.

Problem is, I can't think who I'd want...

Farmers Weekly is holding out for a hero. We have joined forces with the NFU to seek a farming champion. As part of the 2007 Farmers Weekly Awards, we are looking for someone worthy of the title NFU Farming Champion.

For years, shoppers and politicans have taken low food prices for granted. But now weather worries around the world are making it increasingly difficult to ignore how vulnerable our food supplies can be. The latest chapter in this undoubtedly long saga was opened this week by the National Office of Statistics. Its latest report on food prices

Another post from Ian Ashbridge on the concept of "peak oil".

Academics, commentators and campaigners are divided over the concept of "peak oil" - the year at which fossil fuels begin to decline rapidly and we are forced to develop new ways of producing energy. Depending on whose figures you believe, oil extraction may have already peaked - it is variously pegged to be between 2005 and 2030.

But one enterprising academic has launched an innovative new research project into exactly how people might cope without fossil fuels.

It was a big day for Tony Blair yesterday - but it was also a big day for me. Why? Because - rather bizarrely - it was the day I became David Miliband's toilet attendant.

I was lurking outside the press room at the CLA's centenary conference when the minister appeared and asked whether I could check if there was anyone in the toilet opposite. The reason he wanted me to check it out was because it was the ladies and he didn't want to surprise anyone. The reason why he didn't want to use the gents further down the corridor is anyone's guess...

By Andrew Shirley, Farmers Weekly Business Editor

And so it's announced that six more ADAS research units are to be sold off by landlord DEFRA.

Part of the explanation was that, with farming in the doldrums, ADAS's research and development revenues were falling and running the farms was becoming a burden to the organisation.

Forgive me for seeming naive, but isn't it now, when farmers are struggling to make a living, that we need more, not less research?

Henry Fell, chairman of the Commercial Farmers Union, makes an unlikely Cassandra. Remember the mythical Trojan blessed with the gift of prophesy but cursed because no one would believe her? I couldn't help thinking of Cassandra as Henry Fell spoke during the Agricultural Engineers' Association conference in London on Tuesday.

If I was one of the 15 Royal Navy personnel being held by Iran, I'd be pretty worried at the moment.

Not just because of the obvious stuff - like being held against your will and forced to appear on Iranian State television - but because of who is in charge of securing their release.

Because if Margaret Beckett's track record at DEFRA is anything to go by then although she'll pledge to have them back within days, it will actually take months and you might find that she's happy with "the bulk" of them coming home sometime next year.

Of course, that's assuming the paperwork is all in order, the computer system doesn't "gum up" and her foreign office staff aren't too busy romping to get on with the delicate negotiations needed...

OK, I know I'm being facetious - and probably inappropriately - but the environment, food and rural affairs select committee report into the 2005 SFP crisis makes it clear that Mrs Beckett should never have got the job as foreign secretary.

She messed up at DEFRA and should have paid the price. Alas she didn't, and now she's centre stage sorting out a major international incident. Gives you confidence, doesn't it?

The World Bank wants the US to cut its tariff on ethanol imports: That's the subject of a recent post on Simon Robinson's excellent Big Biofuels Blog, writes FW deputy editor Mike Stones. It refers to mounting pressure on the US to remove its 54 cent per gallon duty imposed on imported ethanaol. Yet US energy secretary Samuel Bodman pledged only recently to retain the duty despite international opposition. "No one in the administration is looking to end the tariff ore subsidy prematurely (certainly not before the end of 2008), " he is reported as saying. So much for free trade in the Land of the Free.

Remember Major Major's father in Joseph Heller's magnificent Catch 22? The more government support he received not to grow alfalfa, the more alfalfa he didn't grow and the richer he became. I was reminded of that reading an article in The Times today "EU loophole allows city "farmers" to reap millions in subsidy harvest."
It alleges people who live in cities are making vast profits out of an EU loophole which allows them to claim farm support without owning land or going nearer a farm than watching the TV show Emerdale.

Ever wondered what farmers in Africa complain about? Well, having worked with both large and small-scale farmers in East Africa, I can tell you it's exactly the same as here - the weather's never right and prices are too low.

There is a big difference of course. If the grain market here slumps, we might have to tighten our belts but our kids won't go hungry.Too much rain in the UK might mean a washed out harvest, but it won't be life or death - in Africa it could mean just that - we've all seen the pictures on the TV.

I'm Farmers Weekly's Business editor and next Friday (16 March), I'll be going back to Africa to visit The Gambia, one of the world's least-developed countries. I'll be looking at a project run by UK charity Concern Universal that aims to create a reliable income for local farmers and provide them with a sustainable future.

I'll also be asking Gambian farmers, politicians and academics how subsidies for farmers in the world's richest countries could be harming those in the poorest.

US accusations that the French are a nation of "cheese-eating surrender monkeys," following criticism of Uncle Sam's foreign policy, were never designed to win friends and impress people in the fifth republic. But distinctly chilly relations between the two countries could be warming, at least when it comes to farm policy, judging by a visit to one of Europe's leading farm shows SIMA staged just north of Paris this week.
"In terms of farm support, Paris and Washington are on the same wavelength - they want to support farmers but Brussels and London to do not share that view."