Charles Abel • Farming Prospects
Pointers for 2021 Agriculture Act, Brexit, Climate Change – farming’s ABC is well rehearsed. But how will agriculture respond? Charles Abel identified 10 themes for 2021 at the on-line Oxford Farming Conference
1. BUSINESS AS UN-USUAL
Absolutely! Huge change is afoot and farming is responding. Or, as OFC sees it – “the world stops, but farmers keep farming”. Or as OFC President the Princess Royal put it: “unusual is common to farming”. In its 75th year the OFC engaged with 3000+ delegates via Bitesize seminars and 380-plus at its on-line Conference in January, where ever increasing change and uncertainty dominated www.ofc.org.uk
2. STANDARDS IN FLUX
Standards must focus on maximum benefits, argued Rob Ward, AgriFood Dealmaker at the Department for International Trade. Minimum standards prevent worst offenders, usually, but aspiring to maximums gives consumers more and better. But be careful what is said, since beauty is in the eye of the beholder. The UK food brand should focus on a love triangle of ‘heart’ via trust and belonging; ‘purpose’ through a clear vision, shared beliefs and sustainability; and ‘place’ using provenance, reliability/security and originality/innovation. UK Agri-Food Tech can help, backed by a record £11.2bn in venture capital funding for UK tech companies last year.
08 • The Farmers Club New Year 2021
3. DIVERGING DEVOLVED AG
Farm policies in the UK’s nations are increasingly at odds, questioning the viability of UK-wide trade deals, fair HM Treasury funding, attitudes to standards and the purpose of farm support. Defra Secretary George Eustice insisted single farm payments had driven up rents, inflated input costs and depressed farm-gate prices. That needed unravelling. Devolved administrations felt very differently. Farmers and crofters ‘deserve and earn their support’, providing quality food, landscape and a backbone for rural communities, said Scotland’s Cabinet Secretary for Rural Economy, Fergus Ewing. He felt HM Treasury was removing farm support under the guise of environmental payments. Lesley Griffiths, Minister for Environment, Energy and Rural Affairs in Wales, wanted a ‘proper value’ placed on environmental benefits as support cuts looked set to leave Welsh farming worse off. Facing a very different Brexit in Northern Ireland Edwin Poots, Minister for Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs said food production was a public good that should not be outsourced to overseas producers working to lower standards.
4. GENE EDITING ON MENU
Traditional good farm husbandry must fuse with the best 21st Century technology from the UK’s world-leading agri-science institutes, enthused Defra Secretary George Eustice. Consultation into gene editing in England would be a first step away from the EU’s ‘flawed and stifling’ view that GE must comply with GM rules. Instead, lines that could have emerged naturally, or through traditional breeding, should be handled differently, as in Japan, Australia and Argentina, he said. That could benefit nature and the environment, provide crops resistant to pests, disease or extreme weather, and produce healthier, more nutritious food.
5. MENTAL HEALTH
Anxiety, isolation, financial worries, lockdown – farming needs more support than ever. Recovery stories build hope and spotlight resources that may not have been considered, noted psychiatrist Dr Peter Aitken, helping 6000-plus people a year, especially through the Farming Help partnership www.farminghelp.co.uk Everyone can learn how to spot vulnerability and how to respond, ideally face-to-face, and how to ‘normalise being human’.
