Agriculture and Food Industry

Lord Palmer Excerpts

Thursday 24th July 2014 Lords Chamber

[Lord Palmer (CB)]

My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord Plumb, was a childhood hero of mine, most especially when I saw clips of him on television being driven in a smart car with the number plate NFU 1. I congratulate him on the way in which he has introduced this important debate. It is very disappointing how few members of Her Majesty’s Opposition seem to have put their names down to take part in it.

I have been in the food industry all my walking life—first, as a primary producer and then as a manufacturer. I have now done the full circle, as I try to farm in the Scottish Borders. In one of the earliest debates that I took part in, introduced by the noble Lord, Lord Wade of Chorlton, nearly a quarter of a century ago, I wore a tie which I am proud to wear today, inscribed “British Meat”. I remember the noble Lord, Lord Plumb, asking how I got it. He had forgotten that he gave it to my father, who was the last chairman of Huntley & Palmer Foods, when the noble Lord, Lord Plumb, was a director of our biggest competitor, United Biscuits.

This debate is perfectly timed as combines start to roll and British lamb is at its very best. It is therefore rather distressing to note that one of our major retailers is promoting New Zealand lamb. Much has changed since the noble Lord, Lord Plumb, was in charge of the NFU. I started to try to farm back in 1979, and I inherited a workforce of 17. I am now farming a bigger acreage with just three men, all of whom were brought up at home, and I am immensely proud of them.

It must not be forgotten that the right weather at the right time can make a huge difference to a farmer’s profitability. On my relatively modest acreage, that can mean £100,000 either way. It is not good management, it is pure luck. We should not forget that 50 years ago 48% of the national wage was spent on food; today that percentage figure has dropped to just 9.1%—a huge difference.

In recent weeks, more details have emerged on the new basic payment scheme coming out of Brussels, which is being introduced next year to replace the current single payment scheme. Information has been issued on the new element of reform, namely, greening. However, it is frustrating that, at this time, we are still awaiting the critical details so that farmers can plan for planting with confidence in 2015. I gather that even in Essex, ground has already been ploughed for next year’s harvest.

The important role of crop protection products in producing healthy and affordable food needs to be supported by regulation that ensures that growers have access to as broad a range of crop protection tools as possible. I believe that we need a level playing field on the availability of plant protection products for UK farmers and growers, with their contemporaries in Europe and the rest of the world, both for major crops and specialist crops. To achieve this we need improved harmonisation of registration processes between the UK and other European member states, risk-based decision-making and development of novel techniques in plant protection.

The value of agricultural output has almost doubled in the last 10 years. Caring for the countryside—and here, of course, I have to include farming—is a highly capital-intensive industry and it is vital that farm businesses have access to the appropriate incentives that will allow farmers to invest for the future. The noble Lord, Lord Plumb, emphasised how incredibly important this aspect is. Farm businesses need certainty and it would be prudent for the annual investment allowance to be set at a permanent higher level and extended to farm buildings so as to ensure that there is continued investment and growth in this important sector.

Pests and diseases are showing increasing resistance to crop protection materials. For example, herbicide-resistant black grass, first seen back in 1982, is now found on as many as 16,000 farms in 24 counties in the United Kingdom. We need regulators to account for future challenges when it comes to crop protection. Investment in crop protection in Europe has fallen from 33.3% of worldwide investment in the 1980s to just 7.7% today. We need regulators to be aware that overzealous regulation drives away investment and is in danger of turning the European Union into an agricultural backwater when it should be the world’s powerhouse of agricultural development and innovation.