Will’s World: PM, please back British farming with action

Dear Prime Minister,

Congratulations on your new job. I’ve followed your career with interest since as Culture Secretary you spoke at the 20th anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster in 2009 and met the cries for justice that day with rare compassion and sincerity.

You’re obviously a man who cares deeply about people and communities, and I wish you every success with taking this great nation of ours forward.

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I thought I’d write you a letter to talk about farming.

I certainly don’t speak for all farmers, and I’m often frustrated when we’re lumped together as a homogeneous mass by the mainstream media when all farming families and businesses are unique, but I suppose you could consider me an agricultural everyman. 

Family matters

My family have been farming for multiple generations.

I live on our tenanted mixed livestock and arable unit with my wife and children, and I run the business in partnership with my parents who, in their mid-70s, are still active on the farm.

I coach at my daughters’ rugby club, my wife’s a governor at our village primary school, and my father is a local councillor. Families like ours, deeply entwined in rural society, are typical throughout Britain.

I liked your comment recently that you’ve spent more time in the Northern Quarter of Manchester than you have on farms.

I’d far rather we had a leader that was honest about that than some of your predecessors in Downing Street who made careers out of telling lies.

The last thing I want is you showing up at my place in a suit and brand-new wellies to assure me how marvellous farmers are, then the next day sign a trade deal that severely disadvantages us for a generation to come. We’ve had a gutful of that already.

That’s partly why we’re suffering from chronically low morale as an industry. I have to be careful with this, as there are many energetic and talented individuals in farming who are charging forward with great enthusiasm, but I think they’re a minority.

Many farmers I speak to are exhausted and disillusioned, and I fear for the future of food production, and indeed the country, if this doesn’t change quickly.

You stated soon after taking office that “the ability to cultivate our own food is a matter of national security”, and while I strongly agree, I’m not sure who’s got the capacity to do that cultivating when the majority of us in this rapidly ageing and under-pressure industry are merely surviving, and not thriving.

I often see the message “back British farming” at agricultural events, and even I’m not fully sure what it means, but I can guess.

We’re extremely proud of the work we do. We care deeply about our farms and feel a profound sense of belonging to the land.

Many of us are following in the footsteps of our ancestors, and that means something to us.

Business minded

Please don’t mistake this sentiment to mean that we’re farming for fun.

We may enjoy the work that we do, but a farm is like any other business – in this increasingly challenging environment, it’s the bottom line that counts.

Farmers are nothing if not entrepreneurial, but too often we’re held back by arcane planning decisions, overbearing regulatory burden, and a ludicrous public procurement policy that sees our armed forces, schoolchildren, and hospital patients fed with substandard imported produce, often shipped in from thousands of miles away.

I urge you to be bold, listen to our concerns, and support us with meaningful actions.

In return, we’ll happily feed the nation.

Best wishes,

Will Evans (a very average farmer)