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Leading farmer-owned co-operative warns that a
U-turn on farm subsidies may be needed
James Irvine
Teviot Scientific, Cultybraggan Farm, Comrie,
Perthshire
Filed 20 Sep 04
©www.land-care.org.uk
The ANM Group Ltd, one of the largest farmer-owned
businesses in the UK, plays a major role in Scotland's agricultural
economy. At the heart of the business is the Group's auction division,
Aberdeen and Northern Marts, operating from modern, strategically
placed centres in the North and North-East of Scotland. Its flagship,
the Thainstone Centre, is widely acclaimed as the most modern and
innovative auction centre in Europe.
The chief executive of ANM Group Ltd, Brian Pack
was recently speaking at a conference of accountants at Dunkeld,
Perthshire. His stark message was that he expected a return of farm
production subsidies will be needed to ensure an adequate food supply.
"A return of production subsidies will be
needed
to ensure food supply"
For the first time Europe has become a net importer
of beef, while the UK has slipped to only having 65% home supply
of beef. He predicted that the EU would become increasingly dependent
on the imports of food grown in temperate climates similar to those
in Continental Europe - not only for beef but for also for other
commodities.
The Single Farm Payment Scheme - whereby farm
subsidies are directed towards environmental issues rather than
food production - comes into effect as from January 2005. In the
view of Brian Pack this will further erode supplies from within
the UK. He warned that being dependent on on imports made the UK
vulnerable to fluctuating world markets.
In contrast to the situation in France, the UK
government (Westminster and devolved Holyrood) seemed to regard
farming as an "optional extra". France have managed to
postpone joining the new production-free policy for another year.
Even in the future France aims to retain strong links between the
subsidies paid and the number of cattle and sheep produced and crops
grown.
In the UK
"The bottom line is that we will not be producing sufficient
food on our own doorstep and the politicians will need to come
in to ensure more home produced livestock and crop"
Brian Pack
According to Brian Pack the most likely method
of reintroducing subsidy into the food production equation would
involve going back to the system used more than 50 years ago, whereby
payments were made where shortfall in market prices and agreed levels
of returns are filled with subsidy - what used to be called "deficiency
payments".
He reckoned that only empty shelves or sudden
rises in the prices of basic commodities would shake both politicians
and consumers from their present mind set.
Brian Pack's realism is heartening although the
political situation
he describes is profoundly depressing.
The points he makes have mostly been well ventilated
at numerous meetings when CAP reform was being discussed (1),
but they fell on deaf ears as far as the NFUS or the now revamped
Scottish Landowners Federation were concerned. At the last reckoning
the Scottish Beef Council (the Scottish branch of the National Beef
Association) were adamant in their clamour for full decoupling.
Presumablly they must have been thinking of commodity beef, or even
beef from dairy calves, or had some strange idea that the price
of UK beef would escalate to dizzy heights.
Scotland's beef envelope
The NFUS and the NBA were very upset when Ross
Finnie, Scottish Minister for Environment and Rural Affairs, announced
his decision to use a "beef envelope" subsidy in relation
to the first 75 beef calves produced on a holding. Although of minuscule
proportions, nevertheless the decision to use a "beef envelope"
production subsidy in Scotland indicated that perhaps the penny
had dropped in government circles that quality suckler herds in
Scotland were under severe threat from the new Single Farm Payment
Scheme.
Perhaps the likely legacy of the Scottish Executive
whereby Scotland's internationally renowned quality beef industry
is lost - on top of the loss of the Scottish fishing industry -
was serving to concentrate their minds. Apart from that, the Scottish
Executive may have realised that the remoter parts of the country
could become devoid of livestock - quality or not - with somewhat
serious consequences for these rural communities - let alone the
"environment" of these areas.
Land-Care plans to run future articles on the
probable affects of CAP reform on a mixed livestock/arable farm
in Perthshire - namely, mine at Cultybraggan.
As Brian Pack has spelt out recently at nearby
Dunkeld there is indeed much concern at the wisdom of it all.
"Can Sustainable Land Use Pay its Own Way?" SEERAD
, RSE September 30th 2004
Interestingly, Mr Andrew Moxey, Head, Economics
and Statistics, Environment and Rural Affairs Department, Scottish
Executive (SEERAD) is due to give a paper in a few days time (30th
September) at the Royal Society of Edinburgh Conference on "Scotland's
Land" (2). The title of Mr Moxey's
paper is "Can Sustainable Land Use Pay its Own Way?".
Maybe there is a scale for the degrees of spin comparable to
that used to register the strength of earthquakes. No matter how
spin is quantified, I think we may be in for a big dose of it (3).
From a farming point of view, it is very difficult
to see how - without production subsidies, and in the presence of
progressively declining single farm payments due to "modulation"
- livestock and cereal farming can prosper in Scotland in particular,
or in the UK generally. Well funded rural stewardship schemes and
farm management contracts all seem to be "environmentally"
based. Funds may pour in from Brussels, but may not produce much
in terms of economic benefit other than a heavily bureaucratised,
biscuit tin landscape in selected areas.
At the end of the day such funds are likely to
be little more than an unproductive drain on the taxpayer. In Scotland
(and in the UK generally) funds that used to go to farming are set
to be progressively diverted to support the further urbanisation
of the countryside. In the meantime our competitors in the food
production business in France press ahead (using the same source
of EU funds) with their support for those who produce their local
food and who maintain their countryside in the process.
Surely Mr Moxey is not going to claim that the
deficit will be made up by boosting tourism - or that the benefits
to climate change will be so substantial that it is worth shifting
the sites of food production from the UK to some other countries
who are not so excessively concerned with "conservation"
and "biodiversity". After all, the world has an increasing
demand for food. Contrary to what happened in the past, the UK is
now not producing enough food to be self sufficient and neither
is Europe.
Terrorism is now a major threat to the UK. Is
it wise for an island to be dependent on the import of food as well
as power?
The food mountains have gone - except perhaps
for organically produced expensive lamb of variable quality. There
is also little demand for organically grown cereals. The food miles
they generate are obscene.
The report on public opinion that the Scottish
Executive commissioned indicated - for what it was worth - that
environmental issues were not as high in the public's priorities
as the government had claimed. Furthermore, the public were well
satisfied with the way the landscape currently looked, and they
wanted its traditional look to be maintained (4).
Local production of food topped the bill - just as in France.
Will the statistics that Mr Moxey draws upon be
based on what the government-funded Scottish Agricultural College
(SAC) or the government-funded Macauley Land Use Research Institute
(MLURI) have to say?
For myself, I would prefer the pragmatism of Mr
Pack who is very much involved at the sharp end of agricultural
and other types of rural business. He is less likely to let supposedly
vote-catching, romantic ideologies get in the way.
©www.land-care.org.uk
References
1. Irvine, James (2003). SEERAD's
CAP reform roadshow: Perth 13th November 2003
See SOCIAL/ENVIRONMENTAL/POLITICAL Homepage, filed 17 Nov
03, www.land-care.org.uk Click
Here to View
2. Royal Society of Edinburgh
(2004). Scotland's Land Conference, 30th September, 2004
http://www.royalsoced.org.uk/events/conf2004/land_programme.pdf
3. Editorial (2004). "New
farm to help kids to grow organically": Scottish Executive
sinks to new depths of spin.
See SOCIAL/ENVIRONMENTAL/POLITICAL Homepage, filed 15 Sep
04, www.land-care.org.uk Click
Here to View
4. Irvine, James (2004). "Public
support for green farming": more spin from the Scottish Executive
See SOCIAL/ENVIRONMENTAL/POLITICAL Homepage, filed 10 Sep
04, www.land-care.org.uk Click
Here to View
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