Farming News - Improving animal welfare & preserving farming heritage are public goods says Gove
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Improving animal welfare & preserving farming heritage are public goods says Gove
Enhancing animal welfare and preserving the cultural link between farmers and the landscapes they maintain are among the public goods that could be funded under a future agricultural policy outside the EU, Environment Secretary Michael Gove will say later today at the NFU Conference in Birmingham.
He is also expected to say the voices of farmers and food producers are now more central to Government thinking than at any time for fifty years, as for the first time in half a century we are free to design policies that put British farmers and the public first.
Looking ahead to a command paper Defra will publish shortly on our future agricultural policy which will be subject to consultation, he is expected to say:
Public goods
“I believe the most important public good we should pay for is environmental protection and enhancement. The work farmers do to ensure our soils can sustain growth in the future, woods are planted to prevent flooding and provide a carbon sink and hedgerows and other habitats provide a home for wildlife should be properly paid for.
“I believe there are other public goods we should also use public money to secure.
“I believe we have to ensure future methods of agricultural support recognise how critical it is to value the culture in agriculture - Devon and Somerset would not be as they are - with the countryside as beautiful as it is and communities as resilient as they are - without dairy farmers. Cumbria and Northumberland, Yorkshire’s Dales and Pennine Lancashire would not be as they are - both as breathtakingly beautiful and as resilient - without upland farmers.
“Men and women are hefted in those hills just as much as the sheep they care for. And preserving profitable farm businesses in those communities is just as much a public good as investment in anything I know.
“I also believe investing in higher animal welfare standards and investing in improved training and education for those in agriculture and food production are clear public goods. We have a high baseline for animal health standards, which we will continue to enforce. However, we could also support industry-led initiatives to improve these standards, especially in cases where animal welfare remains at the legislative minimum. This may include pilot schemes that offer payments to farmers delivering higher welfare outcomes, or payments to farmers running trial approaches and technologies to improve animal welfare that are not yet an industry standard.
“Public access to the countryside is another public good we value. Not that we should encourage everyone to ride or walk roughshod through working areas, but the more connected we all are to the countryside, the more we know and appreciate what’s involved in farming and food production, the more understanding there will be of the need to value and support what farmers do.”
New technology
“And we also need to invest in the potential of new technology. Whether its automation and machine learning, data science or gene-editing, improved tracking and traceability of livestock or new plant bio-security measures, there are specific innovations which will increase productivity across farming, bring food costs down for all, help us improve human and animal health and ensure we better protect the environment which can only be fully realised if we invest in a way which individual farmers and land owners are simply not equipped to on their own.”
Food, at last, at the heart of Government thinking
“I fear that, in the past, the concerns of farmers and food producers were given insufficient weight in the design and implementation of UK Government policy.
“That was a mistake. But it could be, and was, defended by some on the basis that the major policy decisions governing farming and food production were taken not at a domestic level but at European levels through the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy. Since UK ministers and civil servants had little room to shape, let alone, reform the CAP’s operation there was, it was argued, little justification for expending energy thinking hard about food policy.
“This failure was all the more lamentable because, as everyone here knows, the food and drink industry is Britain’s biggest manufacturing sector. It’s also Britain’s fastest-growing, with our export growth over the last few months having been driven by massive increases in food and drink sales.
“That growth has been enabled by Britain’s decision to leave the European Union and the new opportunities it has given our exporters. And leaving the EU also, of course, requires us to develop new policies on food and farming. For the first time in almost half a century, we are free to design policies from first principles that put British farmers, and consumers, first.
“The brilliant team of civil servants in Defra have been rising to that challenge and also ensuring that the rest of Government does as well.
“So we can now have, for the very first time in Government, a strategy that is designed to integrate the concerns of all those involved in food and drink production - from farm to fork - to develop the right policies for the future.
“Working with the Business Department we have also established a Food and Drink Sector Council with representatives from primary producers, processors and distributors, the hospitality sector and retail, to identify where more needs to be done. Current and past NFU Presidents are among the representatives on the council and working groups, who will look at how to further improve productivity, enhance training, support innovation and open new export markets.
“This work will be the precursor to a new Food and Drink Sector deal to build on existing successes and prepare the sector better for the future.
“The voices of farmers and food producers, their hopes and concerns, expectations and ambitions, and indeed obligations and duties, are now more central to Government thinking than at any time for fifty years. It is crucial that we, together, make the most of this historic opportunity as we leave the EU, this unfrozen moment, to shape policy decisively in the interest of future generations.”