September 2009 Archives

A YEAR ago, after trawling from one event to another at the Labour Party Conference I wrote about how peripheral food and farming were . 

Farming was on the very fringe of even the fringe events, mentioned, if at all, only passing in discussions on real Labour issues like the environment, animal welfare or the wellbeing farmers elsewhere in the world.

The one core farming event, the NFU fringe, was pitifully attended, after the conference organisers forgot to include it in the listings.

What a difference a year makes. Ok, so farming wasn't exactly vying with Gordon Brown's future, Andrew Marr's interview technique or how much the Party now loves Peter Mandelson as the main talking point this week in Brighton.

But nobody attending this year could be left in any doubt about just how far the subject has moved up the political agenda in the space of 12 months.

Defra Secretary Hilary Benn was at pains in his conference speech to tell his Party just how important farming and food production is to the nation and the world, as the number of mouths to feed soars towards nine billion by 2050.

Perhaps Farming Minister Jim Fitzpatrick got a little carried away when he said farmers would be the nation's 'heroes' at a fringe event on food security. He also said his job was to represent the views of the industry within Government on issues like the supermarket ombudsman, 'surely a first from a Defra Minister', as one veteran conference goer observed.

But of undoubted significance was the number of well-attended fringe events like this one that discussed food production as an entity in its own right and put farming at their heart.

There at another fringe event on food security was former Defra Minister and farming champion Jeff Rooker, in his new role as Food Standards Agency, commenting in reassuringly robust tones on subjects like GM food and the health benefits (or lack of them) of organic food.

He popped up again later, this time in the audience, at the NFU fringe, which, this year was teeming with MPs, peers, prospective candidates, lobbyists and journalists, wanting to hear the farming take on one of the hot topics of the day.

However, talk is cheap and irrelevant if it does not translate to action. Mr Benn backed his rhetoric in July with his decision on a set-aside replacement. But Wednesday's announcement from Wales on its approach to bovine TB served as a reminder that he has some way to go yet before many farmers see him as an ally in their efforts to produce food.

The other problem - as everybody in Brighton was painfully aware - is that this Government might not be around for much longer to act on its new found awareness

of the nation's farming heroes.

If this was a game of football, then it is half-time and politics has had all of the possession and is hammering science all ends up.

The supporters of science, mostly farmers, are feeling somewhat disheartened.

The Crop Protection Association says it is for political reasons that rules on genetically modified food have not been changed by European leaders who seem happy to import meat fed on prohibited GM feed but unhappy to allow our farmers to feed their livestock on that same GM feed.

Food prices go up as a result. 1-0.

The UK Government says it is for political reasons that the new Pesticide Authorisation Regulation got through, which threatens to remove 15-20 per cent of currently approved crop protection products, without any clear scientific basis.

Food production goes down as a result. 2-0.

The livestock industry says it is for political reasons that cattle farmers are still weighed down by the spectre of TB despite evidence that a targeted cull of animals carrying the disease (badgers) could ease their burden.

Farmers go out of business as a result. 3-0.

We could go on.

EID. 4-0.

NVZs. 5-0.

Science has taken a back seat, where no amount of evidence is enough to tackle the quick passing politics.  

But it could simply be down to a lack of players on the science team.

Up until now the European Commission hasn't even had a chief scientific advisor.

Indeed, the UK, with the erstwhile Prof Beddington who battles tirelessly for policy based on science, is one of the only a handful of EU countries to have a chief scientific advisor.

It is no wonder, then, that the new pesticide regulation was discussed in Brussels by politicians, not scientists, who eventually agreed on a set of rules that Prof Beddington said had 'no clear scientific justification'. Hilary Benn was guided by his advisor and opposed the regulation.

If only Mr Benn had listened to the former chief scientific advisor, Prof King, who said a cull of badgers could be effective in preventing the spread of TB. He didn't listen to the science but was guided by public perceptions - a shameless move of pragmatic politics.   

Maybe the game is starting to change, however. The NFU, the CPA and the Government this week praised news that the European Commission president Juan Manuel Barosso wants a 'powerful' chief scientific advisor to guide EU policy.

Barosso said he wanted a fundamental review of the way policy makers use scientific advice.

This could be good news for farmers who will expect a stronger showing from the science team who have a serious fight-back on their hands.

Just putting together the morning news round-up and I noticed this in the Daily Express

SCANDAL OF IMMIGRANTS TAKING OVER OUR IT JOBS

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/130665/Scandal-of-immigrants-taking-over-our-IT-jobs

Ignoring for the minute the predictable and somewhat shameful 'British jobs for British people' sentiment, one phrase really caught my eye:

'It follows complaints that migrant workers are also taking jobs in other areas such as in agriculture.'

While middle England splutters with fury into its cornflakes this morning, blaming 'them from abroad' for the fact they are sat it their boxershorts all day watching Jeremy Kyle and re-runs of Top Gear on Dave, they fail to realise that for agriculture at least migrant workers are essential.

The Express story suggests migrants are taking jobs in farming which otherwise, Brits would have filled.

That surely is not true.

Agriculture has struggled for years to attract British workers and has relied heavily on seasonal migrant labour.

In fact when immigration laws were tghtened earlier this year the farming industry warned it would struggle to harvest crops as there would not be enough staff.

Even in recessionary times, we Brits are a choosy workforce.

Try convincing someone who has lived in a town, on unemployment benefits for the last few years to leave that to go and work on a farm - many would turn you down.

It's as much about perception as anything, but farmers will know it is not a matter of getting cheaper labour but more often than not the domestic workforce is not willing to get its hands dirty.

So perhaps someone should tell Express readers the simple fact that without migrant labour, there may be no food on their table, they may be forced to bring food (along with the workforce) in from abroad.

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On a separate note, hats off to The Sun today for this pun-filled story about a tractor driver who became trapped under a low bridge.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/scotsol/homepage/news/2659294/Tractor-carrying-straw-gets-stuck-under-a-bridge-near-Stirling.html

'A right bales up' - genius. well done sirs.

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It pains me to say it, but here goes...

My name's Jack, and I'm a Farmville addict

Those who read my previous blog post on this latest internet craze will remember I wasn't the bigegst fan of Facebook and its latest method of keeping people locked away in the house on their computers.

But, having tried it out (all for work purposes you understand!) I have become a bona fide Farmville user.

It's addictive.

I've just sown some more crops, bought a few cows and planted some hedges. Now all i need to do is wait an agonizing three days for it to grow (this is the virtual world after all, time is a foreign concept on this farm) and then I can get back onto it.

I'm now in stiff competition with friends and colleagues to get the best farm, earn the most money and gain the most points.

It's a fierce competition and I have to admit I am dedicating far too much time to it at the moment.

And I'm not the only one.

Last time we reported on it, there were 39,000,000 users - a record for a social network game.

Now there's a whopping 45,000,000 after the huge amount of press coverage the game has had in previous weeks - FG included, so sincere apologies from us to those who now find themselves burdened with this addiction.

There must surely be a support group i can join, a way to ween myself off this habit. I even found myself 'harvesting' at 11pm last week in an attempt to gain a march on my virtual competitiors.

I know its not healthy (I'm told you go blind if you do it too much... or something like that) but I just can't help it.

I've just picked up a leaflet for Merial's bluetongue vaccine.

One thing that immediately strikes me is an image of a £50 note burning - the message being that 'Bluetongue can destroy livlihoods as well as livestock'.

But the irony is the image may say something completely different to many farmers who shelled out for vaccine this year only to find the disease hasn't come back.

Without doubt vaccination is the safest option as the Uk is technically still at risk of incursion.

But convincing farmers of that will take more than a snazzy sales leaflet.

There's an interesting session here at the BVA congress in Cardiff this afternoon which (according to yet another glossy brochure) will explore the difficulties faced in 'maintaining vaccine take-up'.

Short of the disease arriving, its hard to see exactly how Defra, vets and the farming industry are going to convince farmers to do it come spring next year.

The annual meerting of the British Veterinary Association (BVA) is not normally the most thrilling prospect.

But believe it or not, I'm actually looking forward to this year's event in Cardiff which kicks off tomorrow.

And there could hardly be a more fitting venue.

With TB high on the agenda, there are few places better to facilitate a debate than in Wales where the Government is taking firm action to tackle the devastating disease.

CVOs from England, Scotland and Northern Ireland will join Wales' Chritianne Glossop for the debate and many vets travelling in from across the UK will envy their Welsh colleagues.

It's been said many times that vets feel helpless when it comes to tackling TB, and often find themselves on the periphery of the debate.

But the two day conference in Cardiff will give them a chance to have their voice heard and to influence the political debates surrounding the issue.

With Wales taking firm action and Scotland now officially declared TB free, there has never been such a difference in the approach to TB across the UK and its bound to make for some lively debate.

Add to that the issue of cost-sharing in England and its effect on the devolved administrations and it all points towards a rather entertaning event in prospect.

EVERY year, dairy farmers flock to the Dairy Event. Every year, there is the same buzz as farmers get the chance to witness at first hand the new innovations, equipment and ideas that could give their business the boost they so desperately need.

But every year, the same question raises is head above and beyond all the talk of the business of actually producing milk - whether British dairy farmers have any sort of future to look forward to.

This year, there was a new twist to the debate. Opening the show, the Royal Association of British Dairy Farmers' chairman, Lyndon Edwards, highlighted just how fragile the industry was feeling after the sustained period of low prices.

The number of dairy farmers has halved in 10 years, with farmers still quitting at a rate of 14 per week. As a consequence, the UK suffered a shortfall of 1.46 billion litres of production last year, he said.

The result of this, he added, was one million litres of liquid milk was being imported on daily basis to meet demand last year, a trend that is continuing this year.

This is on top of the 405,000 tonnes of cheese imports last year but it was the liquid milk figures that raised eyebrows.

Until recently liquid milk imports have been considered unnecessary, impractical and uneconomic but such is the scarcity of domestic supply, processors are now buying milk from Ireland France and Holland on the spot market, Mr Edwards said.

Having appeared on this website, his comments quickly began generating wider interest, culminating in them being turned into a story in this morning's Times newspaper.

The processing sector was less than pleased. Initially representatives from higher up the supply chain began questioning the figures, saying they did not have the relevant data to hand.

By lunch-time processors were denying them outright, acknowledging that some liquid milk imports may have come in over short periods last year, but insisting current levels lie somewhere between zero and negligible. Some of the language used to make the point was certainly not for quoting.

The current market outlook was positive, with both farmers and processors investing heavily in the future, was Dairy UK's Jim Begg's take on the situation. Against that background, Mr Edwards' comments were not helpful, he suggested.

Getting to the bottom of the milk imports question will require further investigation. But in the meantime there, is no denying that, while not everybody liked them, Mr Edwards' views certainly livened up the annual state of the industry debate at Dairy Event 2009.  

To say it's buzzing here at the Dairy Event would be an overstatement.

But compared to the last time I was at Stoneleigh Park - this year's Royal Show - it is a hub of excitement.

The place has had a whole different feel to it over the past two days and despite the problems facing dairy farmers at the moment, there is no shortage of them here.

Looking around the displays, there are plenty of farmers keen to see the latest technology in action.

And then there's the political sideshow with farming Minister Jim Fitzpatrick paying a visit yesterday and shadow agriculture Secretary Nick Herbert doing the rounds today.

Add to that the launch of the NFU dairy contracts, countless presentations on the falling returns of the UK dairy industry and there's more than enough to keep farmers entertained.

But like the Royal, it's another farewell for the Dairy Event as it says goodbye to Stoneleigh Park and takes next year's show to the NEC Arena for the first time.

It will be interesting to see if the new venue, taking it away from the National Agriculture Centre, will change things.

Without doubt, the feel of the show will be different but provided there are still flashpoints in the industry to spark debate, and enough enthusiasm for dairying in the UK, the crowds should flock through the doors of the NEC in 2010.

The days when British farmers were masters of their own destiny are long gone.

Today, regulation, rule and dictate comes from a far, far, far off land (well, Brussels) where decisions on animal welfare rules, pesticide use, farm payments and sheep tags are made by people whose people wear lederhosen (Germany and Austria).

And people whose people live in the dark for half of the year (Finland and Norway).

And people whose people knocked us out of the France '98 World Cup (Romania).

Etc.

In total there are 27 idiosyncratic peoples from 27 different European nations choosing how, for instance, a farmer in Cumbria will keep track of his (or her) sheep.

With so many different voices at the table it is important to have a strong overall leader - which is why the job of European Union Agriculture Commissioner is held in such high regard.

It is an influential job and strong leaders can power change.

Franz Fischler powered the 2003 CAP reforms, for instance.

Then five years ago Mariann Fischer Boel took the CAP reform batten from Mr Fischler and powered her own reform.  

Despite having the unenviable task of following in the great Austrian's bear-like footsteps, the Dane has shown tact and guile in forcing further reform of the CAP, cutting more subsidies from production and gradually putting farmers back in touch with the market place.

Overall, she has been a conscientious friend of the British farmer.

So her retirement from politics, announced this week, will send a shudder down some British farming spines.

Who will be the next leader of our eclectic gaggle of policy makers?

Who will drive the European ag policy juggernaut after 2013?

(Current betting is on the people whose people knocked us out of France '98.)

It seems the French are at it again - striking that is.

It's something the French are very, very good at (my personal favourite being the strike in March this year protesting about high unemployment).

Picture the scene...

What do we want?

Jobs!

When do we want them?

Now!

And so now we have the milk strike.

Producers here will feel the French farmers' pain but you can be fairly sure they won't be joining any call to direct action, if for no other reason than it simply won't get them anywhere.

While France encourages the rest of Europe to pour milk down the drain, the speed of recovery in the dairy industry is surely going to be slowed.

They want the EU to freeze quotas and increase intervention prices and export refunds.

But strike or no strike there is very little prospect of that.

Mariann Fischer Boel has told them it would be 'out of the question' when asked at the Agriculture Council this week.

CAP reform will see quotas abolished and there is no prospect of a U-turn on that, not even a temporary one.

Surely then, the French strike will only hurt French producers and consumers, and do nothing to help the current situation many farmers find themselves in.

Politicians have acknowledged the pain being felt throughout the sector at the moment, but like analysts in the UK, they know intervention is not a panacea for the industry's ills.

NFU dairy board chairman Gwynn Jones this week told me the priority should be focusing on the supply chain - get that right and everything follows (not naturally, it will still take some work of course, but its a starting point).

So rather than asking Europe for far more than it is willing to provide, farmers should be calling for urgent action to take on retailers and to bridge the gap between farmgate and retail prices.

Only with a fully transparent and accountable supply chain will the industry be able to get back on its feet.

All the more reason then for politicians in Defra and BERR to look closely at the proposals for a retail ombudsman. 

Rested after their summer holidays and back to the business of running the country they now have a chance to make a difference to farmers throughout the UK as well as to consumers who are bound to benefit from a fairer, more efficient supply chain.

THERE was a time when social networking was nothing more than a high-tech way to spy on your friends, see what they're up to and share embarrassing photos.

It was a voyeur's dream - though personally I'm still baffled as to why anyone cares that so-and-so 'just woke up' or what-his-name 'doesn't want to go to work today'.

More often than not, when trawling through the inane ramblings of your 'friends' (come on, admit it you are not actually friends with 1,000 people are you?) you wonder if the world really has gone mad and we are in fact living in a virtual world where Facebook is now the basis of most people's social lives.

And now, it seems Facebook has helped to launch a new craze - virtual farming.

Figures out this week showed the popular application Farmville is now the biggest social game on the web with a breathtaking 38 million users.

Essentially, the game allows users to build a virtual world, where they tend to their crops and livestock, selling produce at the market and re-investing the earnings in the farm.

An interesting idea, and one that really seems to have caught the imagination.

In one way it's every farmer's dream - prices are set by the game with no interference from retail bully-boys, crops are never affected by the weather, and there's no red tape to get around before you get going.

Not the most realistic farming experience then, but for social network aficionados it has become a serious addiction, tending to the farm in between reading that so-and-so 'can't wait to go on holiday' and what's-his-name 'witnessed 09/09/09 - 09:09:09am today' (I won't name the culprit but honestly, that is real!).

It's still hard to shake the sense of irony though that the most popular Facebook application is one based on an outdoor industry, where computers and status updates are nowhere to be found.

But wait, there's more...

You will soon be able to visit farmers markets online!

After trialling it on Second Life (if you thought Facebook geeks were sad, you aint seen nothing yet!), former cattle farmer Marcus Carter, 45, from Kilburn in north west London has set up an online farmers market.

You can tour the virtual market, watch videos of producers talking about their products and then buy them for home delivery.

Farmers are always looking for ways to connect with the consumer and if the modern day shopper won't come to the market (because of course, you can't leave the house -  there is important Facebook business to attend to!) then why not take the market to them?

It's a great idea, and if it takes off it could see more farmers taking the plunge into the vurtual world to connect with their customers.

I have just returned from a fact finding trip to Transylvania, Romania where I was disappointed not to find any vampires.

I did, however, make some very nice new farming friends - Sampson, Alberto and Radoslav.

But by far the most interesting person I met was Lucian - who claimed to be Europe's biggest farmer.

I don't mean Pavarotti-big, I mean 65,000 hectares-big, or 250 square miles-big. Big big.

Actually, whether he really is Europe's biggest farmer, I am not convinced, but he does have one other undisputed claim to fame.

Lucian has grown more genetically modified soybean than any other farmer in Europe.

You may well ask HOW? Given that the EU has strictly forbidden the commercial growth of GM soy. 

Well, 2 years ago Romania wasn't part of the EU and could do what it damn well liked.

And so while debate raged in the EU over the merits (and de-merits) of genetic technology, Romania, with its ideal soybean growing conditions, cracked on.

Lucian took full advantage, planting 20,000 hectares with Monsanto's Ready Roundup soybean.

He told me he liked GM soya because he sprayed far less pesticides on his crop which helped save him money and saved the environment from unnecessary pesticide pollution.

At the same time he said his yields doubled, which meant more livestock farmers in Romania could buy his high-protein soy for animal feed.

However, when Romania joined the EU in 2007, Lucian was prohibited from growing GM soybean. He says he can't make a profit from non-GM soybean because yields are lower, spraying costs are higher and competition from the Americas is too high.

Livestock farmers in Romania are now forced to import the very same GM soy variety they used to buy from Lucian but from Latin American farmers and at greater cost.  

It's a bizarre predicament which has left many Romanian farmers, not least big Lucian, asking - WHY?