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Food and farming - a practical problem
Food and farming - a practical problem
Prof John Beddington succeeded Sir David King on Jan 1 as the Government's Chief Scientific Advisor. His first major speech concerns a topic of major interest to all readers of Practical Farm Ideas - the escalating problem of food and agricultural supplies. Professor Beddington sees little value in much bio-fuel production which has "delivered a major shock to world food prices."
He cautioned that the increased purchasing power would lead to greater pressure on food supplies. Global grain stores are currently at the lowest levels ever, just 40 days from running out. "I am only nine weeks into the job, so don't yet have all the answers, but it is clear that science and research to increase the efficiency of agricultural production per unit of land is critical." He told the Govnet Sustainable Development UK Conference in
Westminster: "There is progress on climate change. But out there is
another major problem. It is very hard to imagine how we can see a
world growing enough crops to produce renewable energy and at the same
time meet the enormous increase in the demand for food which is quite
properly going to happen as we alleviate poverty." He is sharply
critical of farm production going into bio-fuels, and predicts price
rises in staples such as rice, maize and wheat will
continue.
As the Government Scientific Advisor his concerns wide ranging, and must be mainly concerned with new technology - nuclear power, space travel, GM crops. and technology - But in the world of agriculture, the application of existing technologies is as important in the business of food and agriculture as the development of the new. My hope is to encourage the Professor to take a look at the practical research work done at Practical Farm Ideas, and the hope is that he will be sufficiently impressed to pass some enthusiasm on to colleagues in Defra and other Agricultural ministries in the UK. For our role is entirely concerned with the best application of technology which is developed and understood by leading farmers at the present time.
The professor could take note of some of the developments featured in Practical Farm Ideas, for they are eminently sustainable, involve a large element of recycling, are cost effective and easy to implement on a wide. Improving grassland porosity, for example, helps grass production, reduces flooding, and increases ground water supplies. . It can be improved - with home made machines! producing bio-gas on a farm scale, utilising surplus energy from wind turbines to raise the temperature of the digester, and so massively improving its efficiency, has been shown to be possible - you can read it in in Practical Farm Ideas Vol 15 -4. In an economic sense the "Made it Myself' farm innovations published reduce imports of machinery, so helping the balance of trade as well as the carbon costs involved, and provide farmers with equipment which they may well otherwise be unable to afford. So smaller sized farmers can gain access to technology such as Min-Till, on-farm mill mixing, one-pass drilling that would be beyond a conventional budget.
The reaction of farmers
What's the likely reaction from farmers themselves? Contributors to British Farming Forum may well be typical in remembering previous initiatives to increase farm production. Given the average age of farmers at around 60, most were around for the government report in the 1980s headlined 'Food from our own Resources' which raised farmers' expectations. They were soon to be dashed by a change in policy which could have been headlined 'Food from the Cheapest Source'. One Farming forum contributor was sufficiently cynical to predict a return of the War Ag system which took cropping decisions away from farmers.
Dealing with a grim decade
I have yet to hear anyone in this debate mention some of the less palatable facts:
1. the last decade in farming has seen producers decimated by aggressive markets. Cereals, meat, milk, vegetables... they all have been produced without profit by farmers for a decade and more. The rapid rise in price needs to be looked at in the context of the decline in prices over this period.
2. the industry has lost a generation of farmers - young people have disappeared to be postmen, truck drivers, policemen, taking jobs with limited pay but these have been riches in comparison to the rewards from farming.
3. farming has lost much of its educational facilities. With so few people interested in working in the industry its hardly surprising that agric engineering courses have changed to motor racing, and livestock courses involving cattle and sheep have changed to equine. Compare the number of farmers being trained against the numbers being trained for medicine, for example. Everyone needs food.
Farming has relied on the the lack of mobility of older farmers who have no chance of moving to other jobs and, in any event, are wedded to their businesses whatever the economic situation. Farmers have relied on the Single Payment for survival. Their average age is over 60.
As any farmer will testify, we have been living through a cheap food era, and this has brought about its own consequences. There is no reason to suppose these cannot be changed, but it does, however, require the UK government to make certain that its farmers are not unduly penalised by legislation, controls and directives which go over and above those in the farming industry in other countries and continents. In addition, it could also look at existing controls and take a decision as to whether they are still necessary. Swill feeding, for example, used to provide pig farmers with low cost feed and, at the same time, disposed of food waste. There are many other examples. Peter Kendall, NFU President, could well remind people of farming's last, lost, decade.
Conclusion
There's a need for some practical farm thinking in the corridors of power. Free market economists, led by Julian Simon, have preached a comfortable message to politicians, arguing that the market would always compensate for any resource shortfall in supply The result of this has been a focus on the environment, leisure, diversification - farm food production has been inconsequential. DEFRA has been so determined to distance itself from practical farming, it fails to take a single subscription to Practical Farm Ideas, the leading journal in farm innovation. "Practical agriculture is not really our remit" was the jist of the explanation given last year by their librarian and information officer, who explained that their remit is policy, and in particular, environmental policy. Curiously, the Welsh Assembly Government is the same - no copies. In Scotland, the SAC take it, and the one copy which goes to the Dept of Agriculture N Ireland is apparently circulated around all their farm advisors. Given a subscription price of £14.85 for a year, or £145 for an encyclopaedic box of magazines that contains every back issue in print, taxpayers can rest assured public money is being carefully spent. With just £30 coming in each year from agriculture ministries, nothing in grant, subsidies or other support, the lack of official support makes the going harder than it might otherwise be. One might have thought it possible for someone with influence to see the worth of the publication - yet it is the farmer readers alone who tell me this, and support the project through subscription.
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