Archbishop in "buy British" plea

_______________

Mr Chairman, members and guests. Congratulations on reaching your centenary. You certainly don't look 100.

When a 100-year old lady was asked what was best about reaching that great age, she replied simply: "No peer pressure".

Mind you, old age has its problems. A man approaching his centenary is reported to have complained, "I feel so old; I've had two hip replacements, by-pass surgery, prostate cancer and diabetes.

I'm half blind, can't hear anything quieter than a jet engine, I take 40 different tablets a day that make me dizzy and subject to blackouts; have bouts of dementia, poor circulation, can't remember my age or even my name sometimes. But thank God I still have my driving licence!"

Our farming history might seem a bit arbitrary at times.

You may have heard the story about the farmer who finds a tramp in one of his fields.

"Get off my land" storms the farmer.

"Who are you?" asks the tramp.

"I'm the owner of this field and this farm."

"Oh? And how did you get it?"

"It belonged to my father and he left it to me."

"And how did he get it?"

"From his father; it's been in our family for generations, right back to mediaeval times."

"So let's go right back to your first ancestor. How did he get it?"

"He won it in a battle."

"Right", said the tramp, taking off his coat, "I'll fight you for it".

The last 100 years have brought many problems to the farming community, too. I gather the National Farmers Union was born out of controversy: it was to settle an argument whether the farmer or the butcher would pick up the tab for carcasses infected with TB.

Times may have changed since then, but not that much.

Today, more than ever, farmers need to speak with a common voice as they face common difficulties.

And one of the major concerns farmers continue to face is that of security but that is an issue which doesn't apply exclusively to the old. Food security is important to us not only as a nation but globally.

Security is often a matter of perception and what we might perceive in a picture as a whole is sometimes a world away from the reality behind the image.

Take the recent harvest for example.

According to figures issues last week both by DEFRA and the National Farmers Union, 2008 harvest estimates point to record wheat crops in the UK. The wheat harvest of 17.5m tonnes is an increase of 32% on 2007.

But these numbers tell only half the story.

They do not reflect the flooded fields in areas of the North East, parts of the Midlands, Wales and South West.

They do no reflect the requests of the NFU to DEFRA for a further temporary suspension of the rules governing the working of wet land as farmers and growers battling to get in crops from saturated fields.

They do not reflect the increased fuel prices at the time of harvest, the increasing costs of drying wheat and the now falling crop prices.

Those affected by the rains this year will recall that this follows some terrible flooding in 2007 when some animal stocks were literally swept away.

Many of you will remember the stories of the 600 sheep drowned on one farm in south-east Staffordshire, and 350 on another in Tamworth. Closer to home in Wilberfoss, 50 outdoor pigs drowned when the river came up so fast that the farmer could not move them.

In Herefordshire one farmer has lost his potato crop which covered 125 acres.

In Shropshire a small holding farmer lost two-thirds of his potato crop over 30 acres.

In Driffield a farmer was faced with having to move his livestock of 650 sheep and 120 beef cattle to ensure they weren't drowned.

He had nowhere to put them.

The word went out and he received offers of help from as far away as Scotland.

And then in between the harvests of 2007 and 200-8 we had the bluetongue outbreak with all of its associated controls and regulations on the movement of animals and the consequential impact upon income.

Add to this all the anxieties the current financial recession continue to cause, giving sleepless nights for men and women who have borrowed up to the hilt. They may be sitting on substantial capital – the value of their land – but can only get at it by getting out. Costs of fertiliser and fuel are up, but prices may be down: dictated by supermarkets keen to offer cheaper food at a time

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations:

"food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life."

Discussions around the issue of food security tend to confuse domestic self sufficiency with the wider issue of food security. We need to try to consider what can be done to increase food security both nationally and internationally and also what role self-sufficiency might have in this.

The UK has long been an importer of food in order to satisfy its domestic consumption. From the First World War until the 1960s almost half of our food was imported. Now it is around about 40% of our food as a whole which is imported.

Is has been remarked that much of the food we eat is more well travelled than we are.

Food in general travels much further today than ever before with 40% of all freight is related to food.

Some 29% of the vegetables and 89% of the fruit we eat, for example, are imported.

And in spite of organic food's environmental benefits at the point of production, over half of that consumed in the UK is currently imported.

At the same time as the self-sufficiency ratio is falling, we are also experiencing a growing sense of unease about the power of globally-sourcing supermarkets; about the sharp decline in farm incomes; about public health concerns with food safety;

There is growing awareness of environmental issues; the potential for short-term interruptions to fuel supply, and longer-term concerns over energy security and climate change.

But I believe self-sufficiency is an increasingly important part of any domestic food security strategy, in which government and wider society must play their part.

This does not mean a ban on any foods produced abroad.

But let's identify those foods which can be produced locally and lets urge a return to a "buy British" mindset for the food that we eat. Not through some simplistic nationalism but rather because of the plain sense it makes in terms of economy, sustainability and security.

Let's take meat production as an example the UK is the largest sheep producer in Europe and the third largest beef producer. What reason is there to be buying these meats from abroad?

At a local level, grazing livestock are a key component in the rural economy, supporting feed businesses, veterinary practices, machinery dealers and repairers and agricultural merchants.

If cattle and sheep disappear from the English uplands, they will take very many jobs with them.

A survey produced for the National Farmers Union by YouGov reported that 72 per cent of shoppers want to be able to buy British beef and lamb.

Animal welfare standards in the UK are second to none, likewise traceability arrangements. Additionally the Red Tractor assurance scheme gives consumers added confidence from farm to pack, and the entire process from farm to supermarket shelf.

And yet the situation for many livestock farmers is that they would be better off financially if they gave up producing cattle and sheep.

Add in the other risks associated with keeping livestock and the disincentives to continue with production enterprises will soon become overwhelming.

Buying British, buying locally and buying directly from farmers can all help as simple measures. A Government led campaign which promotes each of these would be a good start.

I know that there are those who think that any return to a more domestically focussed food agenda runs the risk of making the economic situation worse for those developing agriculturally based economies which need Western markets in order to grow.

However unless we witness very extreme forms of climate change there are unlikely to be banana trees sprouting up any time soon in Yorkshire. We are still likely to depend on those Indian and Kenyan tea plantations that produce the materials necessary for a good cup of Yorkshire Tea.

Internationally food security remains an issue of incredible importance, and I am proud that it is our own government who are taking a lead in attempts to ensure the issue is addressed.

As a start the Government has committed £400 million for agricultural research over the next five years.

Such research and action is vital. According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the Unite Nations up to 2 billion people lack food security intermittently due to varying degrees of poverty. Hunger and malnutrition kill nearly 6 million children a year.

The first of the Millennium Development Goals to which the international community has signed up calls for the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger. Meeting this is also essential for meeting all the other seven MDGs.

Hunger and malnutrition are among the root causes of poverty and illiteracy, as well as disease and mortality.

In the light of such figures it may seem almost cavalier to talk about the needs of British and Yorkshire farmers.

But domestic and international food security are not mutually exclusive.

This is not a zero sum game.

Rather our Government has the opportunity not only to invest to meet the challenges of international poverty but also to campaign for our own domestic prosperity and well being in its provision of food supplies.

I don't know what's going to happen to farming in the next 100 years. I do know that those of us who buy our food when all the hard work has been done are in your debt. Your contribution to human survival is incomparable and I thank God for you. When I see what you have had to contend with I am humbled. Particularly so, having just emerged from hospital after a bout of food poisoning, contracted abroad!

I am glad to look forward with you to the next 100 years of farming.

Older people here may remember the words of our Queen's father, the late King George 6^th on Christmas Day 1939. There were no certainties then.

The centre of some British cities would be laid waste. Food would be rationed. The Land Army would assist those farmers who were not fighting. Our prospects, humanly speaking, were bleak. The future looked grim.

This is what the king said, quoting the writer Louise Haskins:

"I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year, give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown."

And he replied, "Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the hand of God, that shall be to you better than a light and safer than a known way."

My prayer for all of you is that in the midst of hardship you will find God's sustenance and provision of grace to be sufficient unto all your needs. And that at times of prosperity you will know that same generosity of God who gave even himself for the needs of the whole world. May you continue to be the guardians of our food security, and protectors of our countryside. Without farming our good and pleasant land would soon become a jungle!

Will you please stand and raise your glasses.

The toast is: "To the next 100 years of the National Farmers Union and British Agriculture."