Farm Diary

At the two-day centenary conference, an impressive line-up of speakers including the Prime Minister discussed food security, climate change, biotechnology and agriculture's place in the world today.

More than 1,000 farmers and guests attended the dinner, where Gordon Brown was guest speaker, well-received by the audience after mentioning food security and praising the ingenuity and resilience of farmers who have faced incredibly difficult times in the past 12 months.

Many commented afterwards on the Prime Minister's speech, surprised by the fact that he had taken so much trouble over the address, mentioning his own family farming background, and that he was so amusing and lively '“ quite unlike the way he is portrayed in the media.

The conference was opened by NFU president Peter Kendall, who gave one of the best opening speeches I have heard, mentioning the moral obligation to maximise agricultural potential in this country as the world faced the need to at least double '“ if not treble '“ its food production in the next 40 years.

He then set out five key challenges to industry and government: recognising the importance of science in meeting production challenges of the future; investment to increase production while decreasing farming's environmental footprint; creating a sustainable and secure supply chain; joined-up thinking to provide better regulation; and a simple and more common CAP (common agricultural policy).

Hilary Benn was given a rough time after his paper, where he started out by stating that the Government was a formidable advocate of agriculture (met with some disbelief by the audience).

He was attacked for the outrage of foot and mouth disease caused by Government lack of investment, the insensitivity and audacity of pushing ahead with 'disease cost-sharing', and his lack of action on bovine TB.

He did not defend himself well, and was accused of 'waffling' when Labour had promised action on TB when in Opposition (easy) and in more than 10 years had done nothing.

Once more, the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs showed the disconnection that exists between Defra and farming.

David Cameron led a withering attack on the Government, calling the fiasco over the 'single farm payment' its agricultural 'Northern Rock'.

He talked about his agricultural connection (unconvincingly), and stated that food security was now as important as energy security and national security.

Under questioning, though, he was evasive, uneasy, and lacked any genuine promise to be different when in government.

I did give him an opportunity to correct this by asking him a straight question: 'Will the Conservative party restore the agricultural building allowance if elected?' He chose not to give a straight answer. The overall opinion was that he was disappointing and a bit of a showman.

Professor Robert L Thompson of Illinois University spoke about population growth moving from 6.7bn to 9.2bn by 2050, with India at 1.7bn overtaking China (1.4bn) by that time.

All this growth will be in the low-income category of the world, with high-income population remaining static at the current 1.2bn.

Food production needs to double in the next 50 years with less available fresh water being used to produce it! Genetically-modified organisms hold the key to this challenge, increasing nutritional content of plants and enabling plants to tolerate drought, wetness, high temperature, salty soils, toxicity, and so on.

Under questioning, he stated that organic farming was a niche, totally irrelevant when we talk of feeding humanity.

Energy minister Malcolm Wicks did well and showed a rare talent for being sensible and admitting that we are still searching for most of the answers. Meanwhile, Lucy Neville-Rolf of Tesco came under attack for being insensitive, ruining pig and poultry businesses, and importing Uruguayan beef!

Jonathan Porritt was very good; Professor John Beddington, the Government's Chief Scientific Adviser, was new to the job but seemed sensible; Sir Stuart Rose of Marks and Spencer was very good; and Iain Ferguson of Tate and Lyle was amusing.

Bob Stallman, president of the American Farm Bureau Federation, had opened a conference in LA before speaking in London, and was due back to close the LA conference afterwards.

He accused activists of poisoning the GMO well in Europe and stated that 70 per cent of USA products contained GMOs, with no harm done in 10 years.

When questioned, he stated that hormones were still used in beef cattle rearing but that they had run into trouble with the milk-boosting BST (bovine somatotrophin) in dairy cows because of 'consumer confusion'.

It is precisely this gung-ho American attitude that has damaged the GMO debate in Europe. Our consumers are very different to American consumers.

To sum up, food security was mentioned by every politician, Gordon Brown included.

The Government was urged to buy British (Red Tractor standard) for our hospitals, schools, prisons, and attacked for over-regulating on standards while buying abroad to a lower standard itself.

Science has an important part to play in feeding the world with less land, less water and many more people, as we face the challenge of climate change. The era of cheap food is over but environmental sensitivity and biodiversity is an important part, as always, of farming. Farmers can look forward to being more important in the scheme of things again but to be properly valued we must play our part responsibly and with sensitivity.

Roll on, the next 100 years!

This feature was first published in the West Sussex Gazette February 27 . To read it first see West Sussex Gazette every Wednesday.