Charles Abel • Club Lecture
A vigorously pro-farming address from Farming Minister Victoria Prentis drew warm applause from members at the Club’s Monday Evening Lecture in late April. Charles Abel reports CLUB Chairman John Lee welcomed The Farmers Club’s largest audience for more than two-and-a-half years as Victoria Prentis, Defra Minister of State for Farming, Fisheries and Food, addressed the latest Monday Evening Lecture on a fine Spring evening in central London. Refreshingly frank, and reassuring, her talk in the Club’s elegant Farmers Suite was underpinned by a determined insistence that British agriculture had a bright future and that Defra was listening to the sector’s views as farming transitioned to a new way of working. A Club member from age 18, with a family farming background at Aynho near Banbury, Ms Prentis is a qualified barrister, MP for the Conservative seat of North Oxfordshire and daughter of Life Peer Lord Boswell. She met husband Sebastian at Cambridge University and both their daughters are also members of the Farmers Club. Food security, support payments, labelling, retail prices and regen ag were all touched upon, with a vigorous question session before discussion continued in the Shaw Room and Bar over drinks and Chef’s treats.
Farming prospects 06 • The Farmers Club Summer 2022
Lord Plumb tribute Paying tribute to the late Lord Plumb, who had focused so relentlessly on the future of the farming industry, Ms Prentis recalled his fight for realistic food pricing in the 1970s. He had lamented calves selling for the price of a Sun newspaper, insisting the British public “no longer had a divine right to be cheaply fed.” It was a theme Ms Prentis focused on, noting the rising costs of fertiliser, animal feed and energy, but also the cost of living crisis for the nation as a whole. The goal was affordable food, but it had to be produced sustainably, and that meant farmers had to be paid a fair price. A key part of her job is retailer relationships, she noted.
