Editor’s View: David Richardson’s wisdom will be missed

Farming folk have lined up this week to mourn the passing of David Richardson, an industry stalwart who was one of our sector’s most effective communicators for decades.

Born in 1937, he was a man in a hurry to make his mark on the world and grasped at every opportunity that came his way, both in farming and journalism.

By 24, he was already a veteran at local print, radio and TV.

See also: Tributes paid to Norfolk farming great David Richardson

Before the age of 30 he had graduated to national broadcasting, when he became known for On Your Farm and the BBC Farming programme.

And, of course, he had a slot in Farmers Weekly (and our former title Big Farm Weekly) up until just a few years ago, where many people would reserve final judgement on an issue until they had read David’s take on it.

All of this while still playing a very involved part in the considerable Norfolk farming business at home that many would have seen at one time or another on their TV screens.

It seems fitting that on this precise week 30 years ago, in August 1995, he was reporting that a very dry summer meant they had finished harvest earlier than he could remember and the bone-dry ground was no good for cultivating until it had seen some rain.

In other columns that month he bemoaned short-sighted legislation and agriculture’s dwindling importance to government, and warned – as he did so many times throughout his tenure – about the fragility of food security.

All issues that were important then, and important today.

I am sure he would have had plenty to say about this week’s lead story on the latest biofuel muddle that the government has chosen to stumble into.

With the the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) ruling out a subsidy package for the Vivergo plant, all attention has now turned to the other major player, German-owned Ensus.

The government said last week that it would not prop up Vivergo “as it would not provide value for the taxpayer or solve the long-term problems the industry faces”, without noting that it had hammered the final nail into the coffin.

Ensus does have an ace to play – the fact it produces carbon dioxide as a by-product, which has many vital industrial uses – including in the slaughter of pigs and poultry.

We now wait to see if the DBT is willing to be associated with the complete collapse of this brick in farming’s wall, or just half of it.

David Richardson, while no great friend of biofuels – having presciently remarked nearly two decades ago that they were not viable without generous government subsidies – was never a fan of a policy that allowed food security to take a backward step.

I shall give him the last word, from his excellent autobiography In at the Deep End…

“The fact is I have lived long enough to see and experience many policies towards farming. I’ve experienced rationing and… surpluses and their political consequences.

“And I’ve seen history repeating itself as I feel sure it will again. But politicians and their advisers have short memories and usually fail to learn the lessons of history.”