Chop mollycoddled farmers by half

16 July 2001



‘Chop mollycoddled farmers by half’

By FWi staff

FARMERS have been “mollycoddled” and should have their numbers halved, according to an influential government adviser.

Lord Haskins, chairman of Northern Foods, will also tell British and German agricultural ministers that food production subsidies should be scrapped.

The Labour peer, head of the Better Regulation Task Force, will speak at a conference organised by the RSPB in London on Tuesday (17 July).

Margaret Beckett will make her first big speech as environment, food and rural affairs secretary, and will be joined German agriculture minister Renate Künast.

Lord Haskins will use the platform to launch a nine-month research project for the Foreign Policy Centre think tank, which has Tony Blair as its patron.

The Labour peer says that farmers have been “mollycoddled for too long” and calls for drastic reform to subsidy systems, reports The Daily Telegraph.

According to the newspaper, Lord Haskins will advocate one-off payments to encourage farmers to retire and concentrate subsidies on environmental benefits.

“I would expect there to be half the number of farmers in 20 years,” he is reported as saying.

He acknowledges that questions must be addressed about devising environmental support schemes which are fair and do not distort the market.

Lord Haskins predicts that farms will get bigger in efforts to be more competitive.

Reformers, like the Prince of Wales who “want farmers to stand around being subsidised and making thatched roofs” are dismissed by the peer.

“Thats for the birds,” he says.

He argues that BSE and the foot-and-mouth crisis have made a climate for change more possible, reports the Financial Times.

The same newspaper predicts that Mrs Beckett will support moves away from production to environmental subsidies.

• Haskins puts virus blame on farmers, FWi, 31 May, 2001
• Blair adviser wants end to markets, FWi, 07 March, 2001
• Farms suffocated by red tape, FWi, 15 November, 2000
  
• The Daily Telegraph, 16 July, 2001, page 4
  
• Financial Times, 16 July, 2001, page 4