Vice President's Blog 6 January 2012

Just spent two days at the Oxford Farming Conference, a very interesting time with some very able speakers.

The conference this year managed to attract both Caroline Spelman and Jim Paice, although on different days. The theme was Agriculture: Tomorrow's Power - a very well chosen topic.

The conference was opened by Dr Joseph Glauber, Chief Economist to USDA who gave the global and US perspective and set the tone for the next two days - volatility is here to stay, there needs to be more emphasis on productivity, a food versus carbon debate and we must have increased investment in R&D.  Glauber concluded that we have to have domestic and trade policies that allow producers to make decisions based on true market signals.

Defra’s Jim Paice followed and insisted that all farmers would be needed to produce food in the future and that excessive importing of food for the UK competes with the poorer countries and is a form of self indulgence that needs to stop.

The UK can play to its strengths and R&D is essential, as well as a CAP that encourages efficiency.  Paice stressed that support was crucial up to 2020 and there was a need to help small farms in the UK. He gave a very good presentation and answered questions thoughtfully.

Mary Creagh, Shadow Sec. of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs gave a robust opposition view and added to the panel session.  Although productivity and efficiency kept being mentioned, I struggled to hear the word profit being spoken and if we have to rely more on the market with less monies from CAP, margins and profit are going have to be made!

Caroline Spelman's speech on the second morning was eagerly awaited after last year's remarks and she covered all areas pretty well. However, I was slightly concerned that the ability to gain alliances in EU was still on course after UK's use of the veto last month! She was right though when stressing that consumers need to understand the true value of the ecosystem's natural capital and the true value of food.  I think she ducked the issue of imported eggs and other foods coming in to UK with lower standards and I wished she had been a bit stronger on this. I appreciate the frustration within government on this but an outright ban is needed and, as a publicity stunt, a large omelette needs to be made in the North Sea!

Perhaps this is something that we can touch on when Caroline visit's Nigel's farm on January 12.

This blog really does not allow me to go into detail about the sessions that were covered and I would suggest that members check the Oxford Farming Conference website, which is very useful.

I would also recommend reading the report written by Dr Alan Renwick of SAC entitled "Power in Agriculture" and commissioned by OFC, a very good piece of work.

I would also encourage more practising farmers to go to OFC next year and especially members of our Next Generation group - perhaps we could find some sponsorship for them!

As an aside, the way the annual debate that "This house believes British agriculture could thrive outside the EU" was supported with a small margin - more reason to get practical farmers at the event especially Scottish ones with a strong sense of realism and pragmatism.

The Oxford papers, including speeches by Glauber, Spelman, Paice and Renwick can be found at: http://www.ofc.org.uk/papers