Speech by Jonathan Shaw MP at the Buck, Berks and Oxon Fresh Start Academy launch, Aylesbury – 16 October 2007
Thank you.
Farming was, is, and always will be one of our country’s biggest assets.
Your industry has a rich heritage – it’s played an absolutely crucial part in the development of our countryside, our society, and our economy.
It does have a challenging present – we all recognise it. Flooding, animal diseases, the summer’s crises have hit the industry hard – although many people have responded brilliantly.
But, most importantly, farming has a future. And that is what we are here to emphasise today.
It’s a future we’re responsible for. One that has to be a real priority for all of us – as farmers, politicians, consumers, and citizens.
Consider what this industry delivers.
In 2006, UK farming contributed £5.6 billion to our economy and employed over half a million people.
You produce a huge range of safe, high quality food. Although we can’t force people to eat their greens, more and more of us are waking up to the benefits for taste and health of carefully, caringly produced meat and crops.
And, as responsible custodians of the countryside, you make a major contribution to protecting and enhancing the UK’s precious natural resources – managing up to 80% of our national parkland, and 90% of open-access land.
In fact, your industry has long been involved in shaping and maintaining our most precious landscapes – providing the gateway to some of our most beautiful scenery.
People place an enormous premium on this, and the benefits that access to a well-maintained natural environment brings – for health, education, and general well-being.
Protecting these natural resources – and adapting the business of agriculture – is becoming evermore important with the pressures of climate change.
But it is by no means the only challenge to be faced.
Consumers are become more discerning and demanding. They want more higher quality, more choice, better information.
And global markets continue to grow – bringing access to new customers, but also tougher competition.
So are lots of reasons why it’s becoming essential to plan for the longer haul. To think about the next 10 years. The next generation of farmers. The next set of skills required to take the industry forward.
This is why we are here today.
We’re here to encourage a strategy that allows the next generation to inherit the knowledge and passion for this industry shown by today’s farmers.
That fosters the spirit of dynamic innovation which will be so important in the marketplace of tomorrow.
That puts a premium on competitiveness and making a real contribution to the environment.
We all recognise the critical importance, of investing in the industry’s future. Doing everything we can to encourage more young people to go into farming. Helping more young farmers to stay in it for the long-term.
Today’s event is another important step to meet this challenge.
I am very proud of the way ‘Fresh Start’, and the Academies in particular, have developed. The way it is being driven forward from within the industry itself. And I am proud that Defra is supporting it.
From the outset, Sir Don Curry and industry partners have worked together to deliver a package of measures that can really make a difference.
A difference to the number of people who want to enter farming.
And a difference to established farmers. The people with energy and ideas to explore. Who want to respond to the challenges and opportunities ahead, and be fully equipped for the task.
The ‘Academy’ concept is proving to be a really successful and genuinely important tool for training and encouraging the next generation.
The first Fresh Start Academy was launched in Kent in June 2006. Today we are launching the 15th.
These Academies bring together the expertise of our agricultural colleges, land agents, and consultants. They provide 12 months of training in areas that really matter – managing a business, marketing, letting a contract, the knowledge required to be competitive and successful.
These academies are also becoming more and more targeted and sophisticated in their approaches.
In Somerset, there are plans to organise an academy based around the needs and circumstances of the red meat sector. And, in the south east, ‘Fresh Start’ is being taken to the ‘Facebook’ generation – exactly the way to offer farming to a new and potentially very different audience.
This is fantastic work. But a lot of other, valuable support is also available or coming on-stream.
My Department is trying hard to help the process. We have:
published guidance material – signposting sources of advice, training and support new farmers can turn to;
worked closely with LANTRA to promote the development of knowledge and skills across the sector;
continued to support the Year of Food and Farming, with the aim of giving young people in England direct experience of the food chain and the countryside.
The “Year” has a very important part to play. It is a fantastic opportunity to get young people reconnected with their food, and the industry that produces it.
If we use this properly, it is a tool which can do so much to inform the public. To boost the links between schools, farms, careers, and learning. To encourage healthier eating, real food, good nutrition. To connect more young people with their country and their countryside.
In truth, we need this boost – this forward thinking. Because farming is a profession with more than it’s share of challenges. Whether it’s the complexity of EU rules, negotiations with supermarkets, or the blood, sweat and sometimes tears involved in identifying new business opportunities and actually making them happen.
It’s a pattern that’s set to continue.
Freer markets provide more opportunities, but also more competition. Your customers will become more – not less – demanding. Environmental pressures will require more action and more changes in our approach to agriculture and many other sectors.
Government has to play a part in this. That is clear. And I hope we are striving to do so.
There are immediate priorities we have to get sorted. Foot and mouth disease. Bluetongue. We need to be accurate and proportionate and evidence-based in our approaches, so that the disease is controlled and farmers can farm.
But there are longer-term goals to tackle too.
Take climate change. The net environment cost of agriculture is roughly £400m a year. Yet nothing could be more important to the long-term success of farm businesses than the sustainable management of the land and the resources you depend on.
The EU published a report a year ago on the impact of products on the environment, and identified that between 20% and 30% of an individual’s impact on the environment is the food they consume.
We cannot ignore this. But we also have to eat. We all need to work together to consider how to minimise this impact.
Crucially, we also need to see climate change as an opportunity as well as a challenge. If UK farming prepares now for the future, it can really get ahead. The UK can become leaders in green farming – developing solutions that reduce the use of natural resources and reduce pollution.
There are some major areas of growth potential, especially for non-food crops.
These can form the basis of renewable energy and fuels, and the feedstock for an increasing range of industrial materials which can make a positive contribution to sustainable development and deliver benefits for the rural economy, the environment, innovation and competitiveness.
Government is supporting this embryo industry with a package of measures to plant energy crops, develop supply lines and create end-use markets.
To reap the full benefits of this, farmers and industry will need to develop new skills, new approaches and new ways to work together. And this is where the academies and other ‘Fresh Start’ initiatives can really help.
I know that regulation is another issue many of you feel strongly about. And I can see where you’re coming from. For me, regulation should be effective, transparent, proportionate and cost-effective. It should be used to deliver specific outcomes. And we should use alternatives to regulation whenever we can.
It’s an issue Defra takes seriously – even if we’re not quite there yet. We’re pleased to have been commended as a leading department by the Better Regulation Executive for the steps we’ve taken to cut red tape. These could be worth as much as £30 million to farming communities by 2010. So I’m determined to deliver them.
Easing regulatory burdens also means more progress on CAP reform. And the current ‘health check’ process is a golden opportunity to finally get rid of the market distortions and barriers to competitiveness which have existed for much too long.
Progress is being made, and there is a future for those who want to get involved with this industry.
But there is still a lot to be done.
To really deliver we need to continue encouraging each other and be allowed to push each other a little.
We need Defra to be working hard with farmers and working hard for farmers.
We need the industry to help itself by learning new skills and exploring new market opportunities.
And we need to continue our progress towards a framework for farming that brings an end to production subsidies and rewards farmers for the delivery of public environmental goods.
None of these things are easy, and none will happen overnight. But there is a sense of progress and some marvelous people are doing marvelous things – particularly in Bucks, Berks and Oxon.
Congratulations to everyone involved with this new academy. I hope it is a great success. It’s a genuinely important development, and I look forward very much to following your progress.
Thank you.
Page published: 9 November 2007