Could the New Year be ushering in a fresh, more confident and conciliatory mood from Government?
This week, 500 rather stunned folk attending the Oxford Farming Conference actually heard the Secretary of State Hilary Benn say:
“The future of the world will literally depend on farming”. http://www.fwi.co.uk/Articles/2009/01/07/113715/oxford-conference-landowners-welcome-ministers-change-of-heart.html
Overall, it was a rather tame speech but sprinkled within it were a few glimpses of a more positive, supportive tone and a definite attempt at reasonableness. Benn reminded us that the best way for the UK to ensure food security will be through strong, productive and sustainable agriculture and trading freely with other nations.
He wants British farmers to produce as much food as possible providing it is what consumers want and is grown in way which safeguards the landscape and environment. Few could argue with that. He accepts that encouraging production must go hand in hand with protecting the environment and reconnecting with consumers. But where does the balance lie?
Contrary to reports, we learned that Benn does “not want to reintroduce set aside” but does want to explore small percentages of land to be farmed in an environmentally friendly way while still allowing production. This careful choice of words is noted but it is still not clear what he actually means. The devil will be in the detail, although we have been promised that there will be “a sensible outcome that commands widespread farmer support with rules and incentives that you can understand and implement”. Let’s hope this is a genuine effort towards lighter touch regulation although there will be many mistrustful of the language used.
And Benn has acknowledged the inadequacies of some decisions taken in Brussels. He’s on side with opposing the soils directive in its current form and he’s still fighting with us on the disastrous pesticide proposals. He concedes that EID for sheep might have been a good idea at the time but the costs now outweigh the benefits. On GM, he is keen on trials and wants to move the debate away from theory. There is even a pledge to push Europe on clearer country of origin labelling to stop shopper confusion over where an animal was born, reared and slaughtered. Anaerobic digestion rules will also be adjusted so that manures and slurries will no longer be viewed as waste when used as fertiliser.
Suddenly it feels like someone in DEFRA listened. When the facts changed, Benn said he was prepared to change too. Let’s judge the Secretary of State on his actions not his words. His message was upbeat, clear and encouraging. It was a fair opener to what will no doubt be a tough year. As the Oxford Farming Conference highlighted, there is plenty of optimism about. Exploiting opportunities can deliver great growth but volatility continues apace in 2009 so managing risk must be everyone’s number one mantra.