Agricultural Transition Plan

Helen Morgan Excerpts

Thursday 26th January 2023 Commons Chamber

[Mark Spencer]

First, I pay tribute to my right hon. Friend, who was the forerunner of many of these thoughts and schemes. The work he did in the Department has led us to this point, and I pay tribute to it. He is right to identify hedgerows as the corridors of wildlife. They are a huge source of biodiversity and a place where wildlife can thrive. We will, of course, do all we can to not only support individual farmers, but build that network of hedgerows and those corridors for wildlife.

All these schemes remain under review. One of the reasons we are here today and were not able to do this last year is because we were running pilot schemes with farmers and listening to the feedback they were giving us. The scheme we have today is in a much stronger place than it would have been if we had acted earlier. We will continue to have dialogue with NGOs and farmers to ensure we get the outputs we require.

[Helen Morgan (North Shropshire) (LD)]

We obviously welcome the aims and objectives of today’s statement, but it has been a tough year for farmers, with cuts to their basic payment alongside the increasing cost of doing business. My farmers tell me that the SFI schemes are too complex and cost too much up front to engage with. That is why we have seen such poor take-up rates so far. Will the Minister consider halting the cut to the basic payment scheme until our farmers have had time to get to grips with the complexities of this new scheme and participation rates have increased to an acceptable level?

[Mark Spencer]

We should be clear that we set out our plan to reduce basic payments over a seven-year period and we are trying to ensure that, as those basic payments come down, we increase the environmental payments at the same rate, so that we maintain the same budget. The hon. Lady is fair in her criticism that some of the schemes appeared to be too complex. We have listened to that, and the schemes we are announcing today are much more simplistic in their approach and much more flexible in their delivery. I encourage farmers in her constituency in Shropshire to take a new look. This is a new approach, which builds in flexibility, particularly for tenant farmers, to step in and out of the SFI, and I sincerely hope that her farmers will be able to benefit from the new schemes announced today.

Oral Answers to Questions

Helen Morgan Excerpts

Thursday 12th January 2023 Commons Chamber

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Rebecca Pow)]

I thank my hon. Friend for raising that important point, which highlights not only the role of local authorities in air quality, but ensuring that these action plans are reviewed and delivered on time. We have recently updated our local air quality management policy guidance, with a new escalation process for local authorities that do not have an up-to-date plan.

[Helen Morgan (North Shropshire) (LD)]

T7. The River Severn and the River Vyrnwy are in flood again, and the Minister will know that this is the fourth year in a row we have seen flooding, with record flooding over the past three years. Obviously, that water originates upstream in Wales. Will she update me as to the conversations she has had with her Welsh colleagues about managing the upper Severn catchment?

[Rebecca Pow]

The hon. Lady raises the important point that the whole catchment is involved in flooding; this is about not just where the flooding occurs at the bottom, but where it comes from. Not long ago, I visited the Vyrnwy reservoir. Apparently, that was the first time a Minister had ever been there. I held a roundtable with the Welsh equivalent of the Environment Agency and all sorts of other bodies, but the Labour Welsh Environment Minister declined to join us.

Avian Influenza Outbreak

Helen Morgan Excerpts

Wednesday 30th November 2022 Westminster Hall

[Tim Farron]

I absolutely agree that this needs to be a whole-UK project. I thank my friend and neighbour for her contribution—not least for reminding me how much younger she is than me. If we had an outbreak of foot and mouth on the same scale today, it would have an economic impact of £12 billion. As I said, there are impacts that are not quantifiable but even more devastating.

What do the Government need to do? I will briefly suggest three things. First, they should support our farmers through the current crisis. As the right hon. Member for Maldon rightly said, the compensation scheme is not fit for purpose, and the Government must bring it into the 21st century. The legislation that it was built on was introduced in 1981. It is practically prehistoric —like me. Farmers are able to receive compensation only for birds that are alive when the flock is seen by a vet.

[Helen Morgan (North Shropshire) (LD)]

As the representative of a constituency that has a large number of intensive poultry farms, and as someone who has kept a backyard flock and been the financial controller of a poultry farm, I have seen at first hand the difficulties of trying to house poultry. Most importantly, I have seen the difficulties that the farming industry faces when trying to insure against avian influenza. It used to be possible to obtain insurance, because the disease was an unlikely event—it was a peril that insurers would happily insure against—but now it is almost impossible. Does my hon. Friend agree that taking preventive action—

[Sir George Howarth (in the Chair)]

Order. If the hon. Lady wants to make a speech, she should indicate so. Interventions should be brief.

Cost of Living: Support for Farmers

Helen Morgan Excerpts

Tuesday 12th July 2022 Westminster Hall

[Helen Morgan (North Shropshire) (LD)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Hollobone. I thank the hon. Member for Rutland and Melton (Alicia Kearns) for securing this important debate, and for her incredibly useful opening remarks.

A few weeks ago, I met a number of farmers and farming representatives in my constituency of North Shropshire, at a lovey farm near Whitchurch. Despite the warm welcome and a tour of the state-of-the-art calf shed, the subject matter of the meeting was very sobering. Living in a rural area, often off-grid, in older and less energy-efficient houses, and with little access to public transport means that farmers and their neighbours are experiencing the cost of living crisis to a significant degree. However, for our farmers, it is not just a cost of living crisis—it is a cost of doing business crisis.

Farmers have told me, and we have heard colleagues raise the issue a number of times in the House, that rocketing input costs are putting them at risk of going out of business. Even where increased selling prices are helping to offset that, the cash-flow impact of increased input prices, months before crops are harvested or animals sold, will be enough to put some of our critical food producers out of business. We are all aware of the scale of those input cost prices: the cost of fertiliser has increased more than fourfold; diesel prices have nearly doubled; and the price of animal feed and energy costs are all increasing. Agriflation is hitting the sector really hard.

Those price increases are compounded by other challenges, as the hon. Member for Rutland and Melton has mentioned, such as the shortage of labour for tasks such as harvesting and milking. Pig farmers face an especially tough period, with labour shortages at meat processing plants leaving pigs on farm, and they still need feeding and caring for. I have met pig farmers in North Shropshire whose only option now is to shoot pigs that cannot be processed on farm and think about shutting up shop.

The nail in the coffin for many farmers is the manner in which the basic farm payment has been phased out before its replacement—the agricultural transition plan—is ready to roll. The biggest farms are seeing 40% cuts in their payments, and smaller family farms are seeing cuts that mark the difference between staying in business and going bust altogether. Although the new support schemes are a good idea in principle and I support them, farmers in North Shropshire report that they are not ready to be implemented, require too much up-front investment and will not make up the shortfall in the time required. The National Farmers Union, the National Audit Office and the Public Accounts Committee have all agreed with that bleak assessment.

In the spirit of being constructive, I have some suggestions. As an accountant, I back the call of the NFU to introduce farm business loans to support the cash flow of agricultural businesses through that critical period between input, cost and harvest, as well as its suggestion to improve the transparency of fertiliser market prices and enable greater certainty over the price of fertiliser for next year’s crop.

I also ask the Minister for some additional support for our farmers. At a time when food security can no longer be taken for granted, the Government’s broken promise to maintain the historical levels of support for the transition period is putting the farming sector at high risk. Local farmers have been clear with me that while they support the idea of a payment system that encourages more sustainability in farming, they will not be in business to use it and exploit it after years of falling income and high levels of up-front investment. They have also expressed concern that some of the larger types of regeneration scheme proposed will discourage food production, rather than find a way to improve production on a sustainable basis.

We need an effective strategy to deal with the labour shortages affecting the ability not only to harvest but to process that food once it has been reared and sent off to processing. Farmers need confidence for the future, not just to plant next year’s crop but to invest for greater productivity. I would like the Minister to commit that trade deals done by this Government will not undercut our family farms by allowing cheaper, lower-quality food into the country. We should be proud of our higher animal welfare and environmental standards and lead the world by insisting on a level playing field when we agree to trade with our competitors.

I would like to reflect for a moment on the impact on the people whose businesses are affected by this crisis. They already suffer high levels of isolation and poor levels of mental health, and the situation is worsened by the cruel financial pressure they find themselves under. Visiting a farm close to me on Open Farm Sunday, I met representatives from Shropshire Rural Support, a charity providing a vital component of support for farmers and agricultural workers who need additional help with their mental health. They have reported a noticeable increase in people turning to them for help as the business climate has worsened.

It is vital that we remember the human cost as well as the financial one for those working hard to keep Britain fed. The challenges facing the farming industry are significant and are global in nature—we recognise that. But the Government can take steps to mitigate their impact. I look forward to the Minister’s response.

Genetic Technology (Precision Breeding) Bill

Helen Morgan Excerpts

2nd reading
Wednesday 15th June 2022 Commons Chamber

[Helen Morgan (North Shropshire) (LD)]

In broad terms, I support the idea of encouraging a science-based approach to technologies such as genetic editing for precision breeding. In general terms, I accept that such methods will be helpful in the fight against climate change and excessive antibiotic use, among other things, and that they have the potential to reduce the need for pesticides in farming. I welcome that the Advisory Committee on Releases to the Environment and the European Food Safety Authority have advised that no more risk is attached to precision-bred foods than to those from traditional breeding methods.

I would like clarification on some other implications of the Bill. First and foremost, I am concerned that it is a slight distraction from the current crisis facing British farmers. Contrary to the Prime Minister’s assertions this morning, Liberal Democrats are broadly supportive of the concept of the environmental land management scheme and the sustainable farming incentive, and we welcome a replacement for the basic farm payment. However, the farmers we meet, such as those I met on Friday, tell us that the reduction in the farm payment this year, when the replacement scheme is not yet in place, is causing genuine hardship. They would like to get on board with the new schemes, but the up-front costs make it unlikely that they will bother. A deregulated environment for precision breeding will not help them, because they might not be in business to benefit from it. We need to back farmers with a smooth transition between subsidy schemes to make sure we still have farmers who can benefit from the changes the Government propose.

The Bill is a bit light on detail on the new regulatory requirements for these crops and animals. Will the Minister clarify how the Government will identify any unforeseen environmental consequences once these products are released into the environment? It would be useful to understand how unintended downsides will be dealt with if they happen.

As many Members have suggested, there are concerns about animal welfare. While editing the genes of a pig, for example, to make it resistant to the worst types of disease is welcome, that must not be a shortcut to allowing pigs to be reared in less hygienic and more crowded conditions. Not only must their welfare continue to be protected; it must be continuously improved.

Given the amount of rhetoric over the past couple of years from Government Front Benchers about a bonfire of regulations, how can consumers be reassured that the Bill is not a back-door route to reducing animal welfare and environmental standards, in which our farmers have led the world? It certainly makes no provision for food labelling, that would allow consumers to decide whether or not they prefer a precision-bred product. Those concerns are a direct consequence of the fact that it is not at all clear how the precautionary principle outlined in the Environment Act 2021 and the Government’s environmental principles policy statement of 12 May will be applied in this area. At points, the two seem to be directly at odds with each other. I ask for clarity from DEFRA on that point.

We are proud of the progress our farmers have made and the high standards they have achieved. We do not want all that effort to be wasted now through a back-door watering down of standards. I am worried about the impact that any reduction in confidence in British food and agricultural products would have on the export of our excellent food products to the EU, which we know takes a more cautious approach to gene-editing technologies.

I would like a complete overhaul of food labelling so that consumers know exactly what they are buying. Then, if there is a Union Jack on the package, they can be confident that the animal has been reared on a British farm by a British farmer, or that the carrot has been pulled from a British field, and that they have not just been butchered or peeled here. If the animal or carrot has been bred through a gene-editing process, that should be clearly marked on the package, so that the consumer can make the choice. It is vital to empower consumers with as much information as possible, so that they can make informed choices and have trust in the quality of the food they buy.

In conclusion, I support the Bill, but with qualifications. We need to build trust and confidence in our food chain. Transparency in labelling, appropriate regulation to provide readiness for unforeseen circumstances, and maintaining and improving animal welfare standards would help deliver that. I urge the Government to consider those points in Committee. As I said, the priority at the moment must be the viability of our family farms in the short term. They need short-term support—

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Dame Eleanor Laing)]

Order. I call David Duguid.

Government Food Strategy

Helen Morgan Excerpts

Monday 13th June 2022 Commons Chamber

[George Eustice]

I very much enjoyed meeting growers from my hon. Friend’s constituency with its wonderful fenland and high-grade horticultural land. We do indeed keep a close eye on the requirement for seasonal agricultural workers, but, as I said, we currently judge that 40,000 is sufficient for this year.

[Helen Morgan (North Shropshire) (LD)]

I met various farmers and farming representatives in my constituency on Friday. They are keen to produce food sustainably, but they told me that their biggest problem is the phasing out of the basic payment scheme before the environmental land management scheme is ready to go ahead. Moreover, they believe that they will not be able to get involved in the sustainable farming incentive because of the up-front costs involved in some of those schemes. Will the Secretary of State look at that problem? We are in danger not only of our environmental and welfare aspirations falling away, but of some of our critical food producers going out of business in this critical short-term period.

[George Eustice]

As the hon. Lady will know, the Government committed to keeping the budget that we spend on agriculture the same in cash terms for every year of this Parliament. That is exactly what we are doing. Although we are making a modest 15% further reduction to the BPS payment this year, we are simultaneously giving farmers access to that money through the sustainable farming incentive. It is universally open to all, there are not the up-front costs that she talked about, and we will pay farmers quarterly. It is a scheme that leading farming organisations, such as the Country Land and Business Association, have been supportive of. The old legacy EU subsidies on land ownership meant that 50% of the budget went to 10% of the wealthiest landowners in the country, which cannot make sense or be a coherent policy for the long term.

Oral Answers to Questions

Helen Morgan Excerpts

Thursday 28th April 2022 Commons Chamber

[Jo Churchill]

I could not agree more with my hon. Friend that innovation is key. We are seeing innovation come through at a tremendous pace to help farmers and growers with some of the key challenges that they are facing. For example, ensuring that we optimise the use of fertilisers is a huge saving, as is ensuring that we can drive yields. We are doing that by investing £38 million through the farming innovation programme. We have launched an £8 million competition for large R&D partnerships. This week, I was at the James Hutton Institute and the Roslin Institute. The amount of innovation that is coming through from farmers and innovators is something that this country should celebrate.

[Helen Morgan (North Shropshire) (LD)]

I have been contacted by several farmers in my constituency explaining that, because fertiliser and fuel costs are rocketing, they may not be able to afford to plant for next season. Does the Minister agree that now is the time to reverse the cut to the basic payment scheme to help our farmers survive the crisis?

[Jo Churchill]

I thank the hon. Lady for the question. That is too much of a blunt instrument that does not help the right farmers. We are supporting all farmers, which is why the fertiliser taskforce and the work across Government to keep an eye on the situation and to ensure that we are supporting correctly are important.