Queen’s Speech

Lord Plumb Excerpts

Tuesday 10th June 2014 Lords Chamber

[Lord Plumb (Con)]

My Lords, we have been extremely fortunate to hear two of the most outstanding maiden speeches ever heard in this House. Of course, they varied in their content. Noble Lords will not be surprised that I want to relate my remarks on the gracious Speech to the role of agriculture and the food, forestry, farming and fracking industries in the economy of the United Kingdom—a kingdom which I hope will stay united.

There are those among us who are well qualified to talk of industrial growth. We had a very fine example of that this afternoon; I used Bamford haymaking machinery before my noble friend Lord Bamford was born. That is where it all started, as he told us as an engineer. It just proves what can happen and what can develop from those very early stages.

Many might say that in the interests of economic growth agriculture does not even appear on their radar. Let me disabuse them. First, I shall give some potted history. There is a farmers’ club in this Parliament, with joint membership from both Houses. It was created in 1795. In the early 19th century, British agriculture was 2.5 times more productive than that of France, and in 1851 agriculture accounted for 20% of national income. Now it is much less than 7%, but everything is relative.

In the first speech I heard Churchill make, many years ago, he said that,

“30 million people, all living on an island where we produce enough food for say 15 million, is a spectacle of majesty and insecurity this country can ill afford”.

We now produce enough for 30 million, but that is of course less than half of the population. In 2014, we are therefore facing an ever-growing population and our priority must be food security. We need, as we have heard, land for housing and various forms of development, but we need to maintain the beauty of the countryside; we have heard about that in areas such as Durham. It is a difficult balance. There are so many pressures for land. It is becoming so expensive—because they are not making any more.

From that work-bench, which we need to produce food, agriculture’s contribution to the economy increased by a staggering 54% between 2007 and 2012. It held up well during the recession, and increased the value of output from £16 billion to £24 billion during that period. It is obviously the foundation stone for the food and drink industry, with an equivalent of £96 billion and 7.3% of GVA of the United Kingdom economy. Food and farming as a business provides 3.7 million jobs. Add the production of energy and forestry, the work at universities and colleges and thousands of research workers, and that makes it by far the largest industry in the country. For every £1 farming contributes to the economy, food manufacturers contribute a further £5. It is the fourth largest exporting sector, which grew by 5% to £12.8 billion last year. The downside is that we are still slaughtering 90 cattle every day—every day—which react to the bovine TB test.

The dairy trade shows an incredible deficit of £1.27 billion, and in 2013 we imported £40 billion-worth of food and drink overall and exported only around £19 billion, so there is work to be done. That seems crazy economics when we have such potential growth in food production in this country. Many were shocked at the degree of food waste shown so clearly in the report of the sub-committee chaired by my noble friend Lady Scott, which I hope this House will debate in the not-too-distant future.

Today, more farmers and growers are using wind, the sun, farmed by-products and energy crops to produce clean low-carbon energy. A number of farm-based renewables provide electricity for home farm use and supply electricity for local businesses and homes in rural areas. It is estimated that climate-friendly energy produced on farms could reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 17 million tonnes of CO₂ by 2020. Agriculture could be the source of more than one quarter of national renewable energy needs. Biogas digesters, wind turbines, solar roofs and fields and biomass boilers are all becoming a commonplace part of the future of the economy, so farming is now a modern industry facing a future of competition and, I hope, closing the gap on imports.

As I think everybody recognises, however, the future depends to a large extent on research. We are only starting to regain our world leadership in food research but, if we can build a car with robotics, picking strawberries or an iceberg lettuce is not beyond the realms of robotic possibilities. Robotic milking plants are increasing, with both man and cow satisfaction, and at least 70% of new farm equipment has some sort of precision farming component. Sat-nav tractors are commonplace, the state-of-the-art combine harvesters have up to eight computers and new technologies are continually delivering cost-effective spraying and fertilising equipment. New technologies will help to improve yields, reduce costs and protect the environment. Sustainable intensification is always dependent on innovation.

Much of the present farming community has the necessary skills, particularly the young farmers who believe that there is a great future in British agriculture and are keen to follow the motto of “practice with science”. I have seen much of this recently. It is still imperative, however, to protect the health and welfare of plants and animals. Excellent work by various organisations continues in our woodlands and forests, for which we should thank Defra and woodland interests.

It is a continuing struggle, particularly after the difficulties of last year with floods in various areas, to control the weeds that are beginning to show this year. The Minister will realise, and I am sure will advise the Government, that we must protect and preserve the work-bench—our land—which can be flooded or suffer from drought, as we witnessed in recent times; but the business of food production is long-term and we must prepare to play our part in feeding a hungry world. Future changes must relate more to growth. We need greater simplification of rules and regulations. We need less red tape and more subsidiarity in order to move forward freely to face the problems the world over.

All the changes before us at the moment, which of course the Prime Minister is pressing for overall, are there for our benefit. I know that the Prime Minister will get support from many other countries in bringing about something that is workable, which people understand and can accept, and which will be of benefit against the overall problems facing Europe.