Speaking at the Conservative Party Conference, which is being held this week in Birmingham, environment secretary Liz Truss has praised Britain's farming industry and called for more British produce to be available for domestic consumers.

Truss claimed that, although "there once was a time that our food was in decline… We had an inferiority complex about our traditional dishes [and] the amount of British Food we consumed and produced went down," the food and farming sectors are now amongst of the government's major success stories.

Since the Coalition government came to power in 2010, there have been three Defra secretaries. Truss was appointed to the environment department in July, after Owen Paterson lost the brief in a cabinet reshuffle.

Truss claimed that the government's drive to "slash red tape" and find new overseas markets for British produce had made the sector more attractive to entrepreneurs, adding that the conservative-led government acknowledges that "Modern farming is not about shire horses and steam. It's about systems and satellites."

However, Truss said, "I want to see more British food sold in Britain… Two-thirds of the apples and nine-tenths of the pears that we eat are imported."

"And I will not rest until the British apple is at the very top of the tree."

The Defra chief said she will be in Paris in two weeks' time "Bigging up British products" at the world's largest food fair.

Truss also said she is committed to strengthening flood defences to help rural residents deal with the threats posed by climate change.

Labour's environment team criticised the environment secretary's speech for making bold claims whilst lacking in detail and pointed out that Truss failed to mention "Water bills, badger culls, air pollution, horse meat, green jobs [or] forests" in her conference address.