Farming and Food Security

Neil Hudson Excerpts

Tuesday 8th October 2024 Commons Chamber

[Dr Neil Hudson (Epping Forest) (Con)]

We in this country have the best farmers. They produce food to the highest animal welfare standards, and we should be very proud of them. Food security is a key part of national security, and I urge the Government to look at the EFRA Committee’s report on food security from the last Parliament. The previous Government took up the recommendation for an annual food security report, and I urge the Government to continue with that. They must protect the farming budget, not cut it, and must protect land, not bulldoze it for solar. We have to make sure that solar goes in the right places: on industrial buildings, brownfield land and rooftops, not on prime food-producing land. We must also protect inputs. In the past few years, we have lost the ability to produce a lot of fertiliser in the United Kingdom. We need to look at that as a matter of resilience.

Biosecurity is a key part of national security. As we have heard, we have a lot of cases of bluetongue in the south and east of England; we know what happened in the past couple of years with avian influenza; and we have African swine fever advancing up the continent. The Government must act, and they must support the Animal and Plant Health Agency, which is in urgent need of full redevelopment. The EFRA Committee has called for that redevelopment, and I know that DEFRA wants it, so I urge Ministers to make the case to the Treasury for it to be funded in full.

[Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown]

My hon. Friend guested on the Public Accounts Committee last year, when we had a full inquiry on this issue. There is a real need for proper capital investment, because the biosecurity of the nation is at risk if we do not have properly biosecure laboratories.

[Dr Hudson]

I thank my hon. Friend the Chair of the Public Accounts Committee for that intervention. It is so important that the Government listen to this request and fund the redevelopment of the APHA in full.

My journey into politics started in 2001 with the outbreak of foot and mouth disease. I know what the implications are—I saw sights then that I never want to see again in my lifetime—and we have seen what happens when biosecurity breaks down. That brings me to mental health, which has been touched on.

[Chris Vince (Harlow) (Lab/Co-op)]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for giving way on the point of farmers’ mental health. As my constituency neighbour, will he join me in championing YANA—You Are Not Alone—a local charity that is now stretching into Essex, and supports the mental health of farmers and rural workers?

[Dr Hudson]

I would be happy to champion YANA, the Royal Agricultural Benevolent Institution, Yellow Wellies, and all the other institutions and charities that support mental health. I urge the Government to look at the EFRA Committee’s report last year on rural mental health, which touches on many of these issues and makes key recommendations. We need to support our farming communities when serious things happen, such as flooding or disease outbreaks. When something more chronic happens—say, when farms get a positive result during periodic tuberculosis testing—we need to make sure that the mental health of farmers, vets, and everyone else is supported. That is so important.

We have talked about flooding. People in rural and urban communities in flood risk areas have not only the trauma of being flooded, but the anxiety of worrying about being flooded. Ministers will be called out in their wellies in floods, but communities need to be supported when the waters go down and the blue lights leave—that is another key recommendation of our report. We need to protect the farming budget and make sure that the money goes out through the farming recovery fund to support flooded communities.

We can help our farming and food-producing communities. We encourage people to buy British, and I pay tribute to the NFU and to my hon. Friend the Member for Hinckley and Bosworth (Dr Evans) for the Buy British campaign that all the British supermarkets have signed up to. We need to support our local communities by eating local and buying local. That is so good for local communities, and it is also good for the animals: it reduces distance and time to slaughter, and food miles.

[George Freeman]

As a distinguished vet, my hon. Friend is making a powerful case on welfare standards. Does he agree that one of the great prizes of British agriculture is that it sets such high welfare standards, and that one of the good things the last Government did was pass legislation on transporting animals, setting ever higher standards for UK farmers?

[Dr Hudson]

Absolutely; that was a key Bill. Animal welfare unites us in humanity across this House, and I urge us to work across parties on it. As I have said, farmers in this country produce to the highest animal welfare standards, and we should be proud of that and protect them.

[Markus Campbell-Savours]

My understanding is that the 2019 Conservative party manifesto said:

“When we leave the EU, we will be able to encourage the public sector to ‘Buy British’ to support our farmers and reduce environmental costs.”

What went wrong?

[Dr Hudson]

I thank the hon. Member for his intervention.

I finish by saying that food security is national security, biosecurity is national security, and we must protect both.