Cost of Living: Support for Farmers

Alyn Smith Excerpts

Tuesday 12th July 2022 Westminster Hall

[Alyn Smith (Stirling) (SNP)]

It is great to see you in your place, Mr Hollobone, and I warmly congratulate the hon. Member for Rutland and Melton (Alicia Kearns) on bringing forward this very important issue. I will never tire of stressing the importance of farming and agriculture to all our lives, never mind to all our constituents and constituencies. It is also important for us to recognise the severity of the crisis that farmers are all facing.

If you ate today, thank a farmer. Farmers are fundamental to our existence as a species, never mind as a society. What they do is integral to how we see our land, how we steward the animals on it, the quality of our water and where people live, and it is vital for vast chunks of the four nations of this Union.

Agriculture will always be close to my heart. I served very proudly on the European Parliament’s Agriculture Committee for the best part of 15 years, designing the current common agricultural policy. I represent the Stirling constituency, which is the size of Luxembourg and has some of the best—and, indeed, some of the worst—farmland in Scotland, and I am proud to work with and for Scotland’s farmers and growers.

In all our countries, agriculture is a hugely sophisticated, science-intensive, innovative business. In Scotland, it employs 67,000 people directly and supports a further 320,000 people, with a gross output of £3.3 billion annually, as well as producing the food we eat, which is quite important.

Of course, agriculture is largely a competence of the Scottish Parliament. We have made several different decisions where necessary, but many of the issues that our farmers face cross borders within this Union, but also on a far wider, global scale. Many of the ideas we need to share are things we need to work on together. We are in a crisis, in Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Farming is in crisis right now, and we need to be real about it—we need to be serious.

Many policy levers are reserved to this place. I am talking specifically about trade policy, competition policy, procurement policy—especially in the light of the passing of the United Kingdom Internal Market Act 2020—energy policy in part and, ultimately, budgets as well, given the financial situation of the current devolution settlement.

The Scottish Government are taking this seriously, and we would like to do more. The EU is taking this seriously, creating a £1.5 billion crisis fund to support EU farmers. I am calling on the UK Government to do more and am pledging my support for anything that helps farmers anywhere. Now is the time to put our differences to one side and to focus on where we can make a difference to the people we all serve. That is not to say I am putting them aside forever, because that might be part of the solution from our perspective. I suspect we will come back to that point.

Food security has to be viewed as—from the contributions in the debate I think we agree on this point—if not part of our national security, then certainly as part of our national resilience, however nationalis defined. As we face a summer of increasingly high temperatures and possible drought, we need to be serious about where our food is coming from and how it is produced.

We are all agreed we need to support farmers. The best way to support their incomes is to ensure profitable market return. That is my first point about UK Government policy. Too many farmers find that the market is stacked against them. There are many ways that we could boost demand, including through increasing local, domestic demand. That could be more money for buy local, buy Scottish, buy British schemes. There have been a number of good examples and now is the time to put more resource to that. There should also be more support for quality schemes, such as run by Quality Meat Scotland north of the border, and various farm assurance schemes elsewhere. We are seeing some farmers walking away from those schemes, which is deeply regrettable because consumers want local food produced to high standards.

Procurement policy is one area where I might agree there could be a benefit of Brexit. I have struggled to find many, but this might be one. I can point to parliamentary questions I have asked in Brussels and Strasbourg where the European Commission said, quite explicitly, that carbon emissions could be used as a procurement criteria, boosting local procurement of food, however local is defined. Even within the EU that was possible. Surely, outwith the EU, there is now lots more that could be done through procurement policy to boost local demand for agricultural products, providing a better market for our farmers.

Ensuring a fair market also needs more attention on monopolies and opaque markets. I think particularly of supermarkets and the fertiliser sector. We have a supermarket regulator. That regulator needs far more powers and far more teeth to do what needs to be done.

Market conditions are pressing for farmers. We particularly need action on input costs. There is a need for temporary support and the Scottish Government are looking at various ways of taking that forward. This is an opportunity for the whole of the UK to support farmers. Fuel, fertiliser, labour and feed are all going up at unsustainable levels. Farmers need help now.

On fuel, there is already red diesel support, but we need gas support as well. As we have heard, many farm holdings are off-grid and are becoming increasingly expensive. On fertiliser, there is a clear need for market intervention and support for fertiliser costs. On labour, there is the seasonal workers scheme and we need action on visas to allow more people to help with the work. Many costs have gone up 25% to 45% in recent times. That is absolutely unsustainable for working an agricultural balance sheet. There is a strong case, which I appreciate is outwith the Minister’s remit but I make the suggestion constructively, that we could find ways in which to support those points, including through soft loans and loan guarantees.

Agricultural policy is entirely distinct between Scotland and England, and I am glad that we have made the decisions we have made in Scotland, especially to maintain direct payments. During the current period that is a great safety net for Scottish farmers and I urge the UK Government to revisit that, although that it is a competence outwith my remit.

We also need to see policy coherence over land use. Photovoltaic plants and rewilding have been mentioned, but I would add forestry to that discussion. It is right that we see competing land use purposes, but we must agree that food has to come first. Anything that cuts across food production needs to be deprioritised. I am not hostile to any of the things mentioned, but when I was on the Agriculture Committee of the European Parliament, the intention was to see the bits and parts of unproductive land go to those purpose. Surely it cannot make sense to take prime agricultural land in any of our countries out of production.

We have already had many happy adventures with the Minister about our difference of opinion on trade policy. I am not hostile to trade deals with countries on the other side of the world, but I do not want to see those trade deals undercut domestic food production. Putting that to one side, the closest, biggest market to the UK is the EU, in both directions. Our farmers are struggling with particularly sticky customs routines and the phytosanitary and veterinary checks. I was in Brussels two weeks ago, and it is quite clear that there is a huge appetite for a specific veterinary and phytosanitary agreement with the UK that would help all our farmers to export and import, freeing up production and hopefully lowering prices. That is on the table in Brussels; it needs to be taken forward by a Government that is going to take this, and indeed international law in Northern Ireland, seriously.

It is a pleasure to sum up in this debate. There have been several good suggestions for the Minister to take forward to her colleagues. Where there are sensible suggestions to take forward for the benefit of all our farmers, I will work together with colleagues to make that happen.