Agriculture and Food Industry

Lord Curry of Kirkharle Excerpts

Thursday 24th July 2014 Lords Chamber

[Lord Curry of Kirkharle (CB)]

My Lords, I, too, am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Plumb. It is not for the first time in my life, but I am particularly grateful to him today for stimulating this critical debate. Without duplicating all that has been said already, I want to emphasise the importance to the UK economy of this vital sector. I declare an interest in that I farm in Northumberland and have a number of other farming and food interests.

The agrifood industry is the largest contributor to the UK economy by some margin, as has been said already, and it has the potential to contribute even more, both to our balance of payments through increased exports and to local and regional economies through adding value and other diversified activities that can lead to a reduction in dependence on imports.

We can and should seek to halt the decline in the self-sufficiency of food production that we have witnessed over the past couple of decades or so. While it is virtually impossible to set a self-sufficiency target—I was encouraged to do so in 2001 in a report I was responsible for and resisted the pressure—it is difficult to do so due to the annual influence of weather, volatile commodity prices and currency movements. Nevertheless, we should attempt to provide a higher proportion of our annual consumption than we do at present. Many look back with pride on the early 1990s, when we achieved almost 90% self-sufficiency, as was mentioned by the noble Lord, Lord Bilimoria, but they conveniently forget that at that time we were filling intervention stores with piles of surplus food such as beef, milk, and grain, which had been subsidised to produce and was then subsidised again to dispose of on to global markets, potentially undermining the fragile economies of the developing world.

We need to concentrate our efforts on producing food in a sustainable way, as has been mentioned by a number of noble Lords—and I will return to this challenge in a moment—with sustainable markets that address the diverse opportunities that exist both at home and abroad, in local, regional and mainstream markets, through constant innovation and investment. This requires confidence within the food industry that the agrifood sector is still a priority for government. Too often it has been regarded as a mature sector and rather traditional, with newer industries seen as being more sexy and exciting and receiving more attention and support from government, when in fact the evidence suggests that the food sector has a great record of innovation and of responding to changing consumer lifestyles. This important sector needs recognition that it is a priority for investment in skills development and business support and that it has the potential to contribute even more to the economy.

The challenge of feeding the huge anticipated increase in the global population has been well rehearsed and, despite the fact that we are a relatively small global player, I firmly believe we have a significant contribution to make. In addition to export opportunities, we will have upwards of 70 million people here in Britain to feed from a shrinking land mass, as was mentioned by the noble Lord, Lord Trees. It used to be said that an area the size of the Isle of Wight disappears every year in Britain through industrialisation, infrastructure projects and housing development, and it is probably even greater than that today. This continues to take place, not only here in the UK but throughout the developed world and increasingly in the developing world, too. If we add to these factors the impact of more frequent volatile weather conditions disrupting food supplies, then the challenge is multiplied. For a variety of reasons, land capable of food production is decreasing at a significant rate. To add to this dilemma, the intervention by government to incentivise renewable energy production is leading to vast areas of maize being grown to feed anaerobic digesters. In the 2003 EU reform negotiations, we quite rightly took the bold step to decouple financial support from food production in England only to find ourselves now competing with subsidised energy production, which is distorting the market.

As has been said, we need to maintain our investment in science. Historically, we have had a great track record of contributing to global knowledge in a whole range of science disciplines that have led to improvements in production systems, genetics and standards in both livestock and crops. It is essential that we continue to do this. We now need new tools and new knowledge to be able to respond to the challenges we face more than ever before to produce food in a sustainable way. The agritech strategy, which has been mentioned a number of times, is an important component of this commitment and the Government are to be congratulated for making these funds available. However, this additional expenditure does not restore our historical spend levels, so we cannot be complacent, as the noble Earl, Lord Selborne, said.

Wearing my hat as chair of the Better Regulation Executive, I feel I should take some responsibility for the decision to discourage the introduction of a soils directive, as referred to by the noble Baroness, Lady Miller. I absolutely agree that the quality of our soils is a matter of concern and a priority issue, but we need to look at alternative solutions to solve the problem by the promotion of best practice rather than by even more EU legislation.

My final concern is that we do not have an overarching strategic plan for the agrifood sector. I absolutely endorse the comments of the noble Baronesses, Lady Parminter and Lady Scott. There is lots of encouraging activity, but there is no glue binding it all together. I find myself involved in a number of important initiatives, but they are taking place in an ad hoc manner without any clear direction, whether it be in providing opportunities for schoolchildren to learn about the countryside, encouraging young people to consider agriculture and the food industry as a career, working with the Farming Help charities—as the noble Lord, Lord Plumb, is doing—or trying to drive forward the science agenda and the extension of knowledge. I find it really encouraging that the industry itself is responding to many of the challenges that we face and is increasingly willing to do so.

This lack of a strategic plan is particularly important as the local enterprise partnerships assume responsibility for administering funds under Pillar 2 for economic development and rural growth. They clearly need to ensure that funding supports regional priorities, but it must also be consistent with government priorities. I would be interested to hear from the Minister what direction has been given to the LEPs in the absence of an overarching plan.

On the subject of a plan, it is concerning that we bounce from one CAP reform negotiation to the next. No sooner do we wrestle with the implementation of the latest agreement than we embark on the next. Each reform package gradually reduces the level of support through the single payment scheme. I am fully aware that negotiations within the EU can be very difficult and I know I am asking for the impossible, but we need clarity on the future of direct support. I am meeting an increasing number of young people who believe that the sooner we have a plan with an agreed timescale to remove the single payment scheme, the sooner we can begin to adjust to an industry that is supported by the food and services it provides rather than public intervention. The current process seems to be based on a thousand cuts. We need a plan.