Defra secretary of state Hilary Benn addressed 1,000 members and delegates at the NFU's centenary conference in London's Hilton Metropole yesterday, and faced some tough questions form the floor afterwards.
Much of the angst directed at Benn emanated from the meat, poultry and dairy sectors, as delegates took the chance to voice their opinions on the government’s performance in the last decade.
Benn outlined the challenges facing farming in the future, but also made it clear that he believes UK farmers have a raft of opportunities opening up to them.
He said climate change will influence what this country produces and where it is produced. “The outlook is bright for farming as the NFU embarks on its next 100 years,” he said. “This is an opportunity to remind us that we literally depend on farmers for our lives.
“With 6.5 billion of us to feed on this planet of ours already, and probably nine billion of us by the middle of the century, farmers have a pretty secure future as we will need you to feed the world,” he said.
It is time, he added, “to demonstrate that the industry has the capacity, the ideas, the new products and the skills to meet the challenge of a rising and a more discerning world population…to enthuse and encourage the next generation of farmers to come forth and take forward what this generation has built… and what tomorrow’s agriculture is capable of.
“I am committed to farming and its future. As a society we must value the productive capacity of our land and our farmers.”
This government has got the message from farmers fed up with the feeling that they’re views are being ignored, he said. "I believe that telling each other the truth is a much better way to face the challenges and seize the opportunities of the future. That’s what I’m interested in. And to do that we must encourage and enable each other as we deal with the changes that are coming.”
Benn said the government believes that there is insufficient benefit being gleaned from the investment being pumped into science and research, and asked farmers to play their part in ensuring the public and private sector are spending the money in the right way. He also underlined the potential for biofuel production, and that UK farming should be able to gain its own rewards for providing environmental benefits to the public. “But sustainability is everything,” he said.
He agreed with the NFU line, that agriculture can and must be “part of the solution” to climate change, and again pledged that the government wants to play its part in the process. And Benn also outlined plans to fund several anaerobic digestion demonstration sites around the UK, in order to tackle the waste problem and generate biogas.
