Opinion: A letter to Emma Reynolds, the new Defra secretary

Dear Emma, may I congratulate you and your ministerial colleagues on becoming the first ever all-female team at Defra.

It’s therefore at risk of being accused of mansplaining that I offer you some advice about how you can repair the damage done to the government’s relationship with UK farmers over the past year. 

First of all, though, I’m bound to express a degree of sympathy to your predecessor, Steve Reed.

See also: Opinion – impossible to believe game is up for for my beef farming

About the author

Stephen Carr

Farmers Weekly Opinion writer

Stephen Carr runs an 800ha beef, sheep and arable farm on the South Downs near Eastbourne in Sussex in partnership with his wife and four of his daughters. He also runs a nearby pub with his nephew, The Sussex Ox, which serves the farm’s beef, lamb, (and fruit and vegetables from the farmhouse kitchen-garden in season) through its restaurant.

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Charming as Steve is, he was on a hiding to nothing from the outset, trying to explain the government’s case for inheritance tax (IHT) on farmland above the cacophony of blaring air horns otherwise known as NFU leader Tom Bradshaw and Country Land and Business Association (CLA) president Victoria Vyvyan.  

So, how can you now mend fences with farmers and restore their trust in the government and Defra over the next four years?

It’s a big ask, given that the NFU and CLA are so determined not to let IHT drop from the top of their agendas.  

First, you need to ensure there are no more nasty surprises in store for us over the next four years of this government.

If there is one thing we farmers don’t like, it’s getting halfway through filling in a Sustainable Farming Incentive application form only to find out that the scheme has closed for applications until further notice because the money has run out.  

And here’s another tip: stop your government from rushing through any more trade deals, like the recent one signed with the US, without Parliament even being given a chance to OK it.

That trade agreement has already nearly bankrupted our entire domestic ethanol industry (which used to consume around 1m tonnes of British feed wheat annually) and will also allow 13,000t of tariff-free US beef a year into the UK.

On the plus side, your new farming minister, Angela Eagle, already had enough understanding of the issues affecting our industry to predict, in a 2022 parliamentary debate, that the switch from the CAP to Environmental Land Management “is bound to create the potential for confusion, worry and maybe even administrative problems”.

She can say that again and, unless performance at the RPA can be improved, may have to say it again and again and again, given that she’s now in charge of that troubled little executive agency – Defra’s Achilles’ heel ever since it was formed.  

More than anything else, we farmers crave a stable policy environment so we can invest in our businesses with confidence for the future

So, can I make a plea that we return to a more stable, cross-party parliamentary consensus on agriculture?

Farming is a notoriously long-term business. I’ve just put 35 maiden pedigree Sussex heifers to the bull, but their progeny will not arrive at the organic butcher and then supermarket or restaurant for more than three-and-a-half years.

More than anything else, we farmers crave a stable policy environment so we can invest in our businesses with confidence for the future.

Even the most ardent Brexit voter must have longed for a bit of CAP long-termism these past nine years. 

Farming policy need not be a party political issue and isn’t exactly rocket science.

I therefore wish you well in finding a balance that delivers sustainability, affordable, healthy food and improving levels of UK food self-sufficiency that any future government will not have to change radically, should Labour fail to form the next government. 

Good luck.

Stephen