Thank you very much Tom for inviting me to speak today.
I’ve been to the NFU Conference before of course – but this is my first time attending as the Secretary of State for Defra. I want to personally thank Tom for our work together since I took up this role last July.
You were the first visitor to my office after the election and you’ve been back more since then than anyone else since. That conversation between us is invaluable as we navigate the farming transition together.
And I’m grateful for your views Tom – even where we’ve disagreed.
You set that out in your speech and I was listening to it, plain speaking as you always do. And I know it’s reflected here today, and the protests in Westminster and around the country. But even if the conversation gets difficult – I will always show up to have it. Because I respect this union and I respect British farming.
Now, I can’t give the answer I know many of you want on inheritance tax. But I want you to know that I understand the strength of feeling in the room and in the sector, we can see and example of that right in front of me right now. And I am sorry it’s a decision that we’ve had to take.
Like I said I am always going to turn up to have the conversation with you, there’s an opportunity to ask questions afterwards and it might be better to ask them in that way because I have an awful lot that I think will be of interest to other people who are here in the room today that might want to hear what I have to say about that.
Now I’ve heard many farmers describing that decision as ‘the final straw’ – and the truth is those straws have been piling up for many years. Tom you were outlining many of them in your speech.
This sector is facing high input costs, tight margins, and unfairness in the supply chain. You’ve struggled to get enough workers to pick your fruit and veg. Frankly, you’ve been sold out in past trade deals. Farmland is increasingly at risk from severe flooding and drought.
And this all comes as we face the biggest transition for farming in generations, moving away from the Basic Payment Scheme to more sustainable methods of farming.
The underlying problem in this sector is that farmers do not make enough money for the hard work and commitment that they put in.
I will consider my time as Secretary of State a failure if I do not improve profitability for farmers up and down this country.
Today I can announce I will set up a new farming profitability unit within the department to drive that goal. I want to outline what the Government is doing to tackle the deep-rooted problems holding the sector back. Because time and again, I hear farmers say that they do not make a fair profit for the food they produce. And it is only by overcoming these long-standing challenges that we can create the conditions for your farming businesses to succeed. Achieving this starts by treating farms as the businesses they are. That’s something, in my view, the previous government forgot.
Farmers have repeatedly told me they want to stand on their own two feet. They are proud people and rightly so. But it is paternalistic and patronising for government to treat farmers as if they are not operating in a marketplace in which they need to turn a decent profit.
I worked in business for 16 years, with responsibility every year for driving up profit and driving down cost. British farming has some of the hardest working, most creative people anywhere in the British workforce. But a sector that isn’t profitable doesn’t have a future. I know that from my own long experience in business.
My focus is on ensuring farming becomes more profitable – because that is the best way to make your businesses viable for the future. And that’s how we ensure the long-term food security this country needs.
This approach will underpin our 25 Year Farming Roadmap and our Food Strategy, where we will work in partnership with farmers to make farming and food production sustainable and profitable. We will work with farmers and stakeholders to build the roadmap together, covering every part of the sector, and the first workshops will start next week.
The roadmap stands on three principles.
First, a sector that has food production at its core. The role of farming will always be to produce the food that feeds our nation. The instability we see across the world shows us why it’s so important we help farmers to get this right.
Second, a sector where farm businesses are more resilient in withstanding the shocks that periodically disrupt farming – severe flooding, drought, animal disease. We will help farmers who want to diversify their income to put more money into their business so they can survive these more difficult times when they come.
Third, a sector that recognises restoring nature is not in competition with sustainable food production, but is essential to it.
It is only by pursuing all three of these principles – and recognising that farms are businesses that need to be profitable, that we can guarantee national food security and a thriving food production and farming sector.
Our New Deal for Farmers is supporting farmers to produce food sustainably and profitably.
It won’t all happen overnight, but we are already making changes.
Tom has repeatedly told me farmers need certainty about seasonal workers. I’ve listened Tom, and I’m pleased to announce that we’re extending the Seasonal Worker visas for five years. That on it’s own is not the long-term solution. We will reduce the number of seasonal workers coming to the UK in the future.
But I recognise your business needs stability over the coming years as we work at pace to embrace innovation, develop the agri-tech and invest in farming practices so you can reduce your reliance on seasonal workers as quickly as possible.
We are making the Supply Chain fairer, with new regulations for the pig sector coming in by the end of next month in March to make sure contracts clearly set out expectations and only allow changes if they’ve agreed by all parties. We are engaging with industry on similar proposals for eggs and fresh produce.
For the first time ever, we are measuring where the public sector buys food from so we can use the Government’s own purchasing power to back British produce wherever we can. I have worked with my colleague Pat McFadden in the Cabinet Office to create new requirements for government catering contracts to favour high-quality, high-welfare products that British producers are well placed to meet.
This means British farmers and producers can compete for a fairer share of the £5 billion pounds a year the public sector spends on food. That’s money straight into farmers’ bank accounts to boost turnover and boost profits.
Ours is an outward-facing trading nation. But I want to be clear, we will never lower our food standards in trade agreements. We will promote robust standards nationally and internationally and will always consider whether overseas produce has an unfair advantage. British farming deserves a level playing field where you can compete and win and that is what you’ll get. We will use the full range of powers at our disposal to protect our most sensitive sectors.
Innovation and technology will help farmers produce more food more sustainably and more profitably. I’m delighted to announce the legislation to implement the Precision Breeding Act for plants in England has been laid in Parliament today. This offers huge potential to transform the plant breeding sector in England by enabling innovative products to be commercialised in years instead of in decades, and we are reinstating the Precision Breeding Industry Working Group so the whole food supply chain can work together to bring new food and feed products to market faster.
We are investing in the UK Agri-Technology sector with a further £110 million pounds in farming grants being announced today. In Spring we will launch new competitions under our Farming Innovation Programme for groundbreaking research that will help the sector transition towards net zero, and unlock opportunities from the Precision Breeding Act.
This is not just for the biggest farms. We will help farms of any size access technology that makes a real difference to the bottom-line over the years ahead. Like the chemical-free cleaning for integrated milking equipment by Oxi-Tech – funded through FIP, which boosts profits by lowering energy costs and chemical use. Our new ADOPT programme will fund farmer-led trials that bridge the gap between these new technologies and their use in the real world, showing farmers that their investments in technology will deliver financial returns and boost profits. And once technologies and equipment hit the market, we are making them available through the Farming Equipment and Technology Fund. Products like the electric weeder developed by Rootwave to reduce chemical use. We will launch another opportunity this Spring to bring more products to the farmgate.
Farms must be resilient to future challenges if they are to remain financially viable and strengthen food security. That includes severe flooding and droughts through to animal disease, and geopolitical tensions that increase demands on our land for energy generation.
I know new tech doesn’t bring the same benefits for every type of farm. We are investing to help farm businesses build resilience against animal diseases that can devastate livelihoods and threaten our entire economy. Like the Bluetongue Virus, Avian Flu, or the recent case of Foot and Mouth that we saw in Germany.
That’s why we’re investing £208 million pounds to set up a new National Biosecurity Centre, modernising the Animal and Plant Health Agency facilities at Weybridge, to protect farmers, food producers and exporters from disease outbreaks that can wipe out businesses in a moment.
We are helping keepers of cattle, sheep and pigs in England improve the health, welfare and productivity of their animals by expanding the fully funded farm visits offer.
Tom had raised with me, and he just did in his speech, the risk from illegal meat imports. More than 92,000 thousand kilograms of illegal meat products were seized at ports across the UK over the last year. They carry huge risk of diseases such as African Swine Fever and Foot and Mouth getting into the country. We can’t tolerate this.
I am working with the Home Office and Border Force on plans to seize the cars, vans, trucks and coaches used by criminal gangs to smuggle illegal meat into our country and crush them so they can’t be used again.
I’ve listened to your concerns about other forms of crime as well. Crime damages farm profitability as you are forced to wait for farm or construction machinery to be replaced, or clear rubbish that has been dumped in your gateways or on your land. The National Rural Crime Unit is already supporting forces to tackle rural crime around the country.
To strengthen our approach and protect your profits, the Home Secretary Yvette Cooper will lay the legislation this year to better protect agricultural equipment like all-terrain vehicles, by requiring immobilisers and forensic marking as standard.
At the Oxford Farming Conference earlier this year, I announced new ways to help farmers remain profitable and viable, even in a challenging harvest. We will consult on national planning reforms this Spring to make it quicker for farmers to build new buildings, barns and other infrastructure to boost food production. And ensure permitted development rights work for farms to convert larger barns into a farm shop, holiday let, or a sports facility if that suits their business planning. We will get red tape out of the way so you can invest to become more profitable.
I’m working with Ed Miliband and the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero so more farm businesses can connect their own electricity generation to the grid much faster, so you can sell surplus energy and diversify your income.
The third element of our vision is nature. Restoring nature is vital to food production, not in competition with it. It is healthy soils, abundant pollinators and clean water that are the foundations farm businesses that they rely on to produce high crop yields and turn over a profit. Without nature thriving, there can be no long-term food security.
I want to thank everyone – upland, tenant, grassland farmers and others – everyone who is involved in our farming schemes. Almost 50 thousand farm businesses are now in schemes and around half of farmed land in England is being managed to enhance nature while producing food.
I recognise the frustration when we had to pause the Capital Grants offer last year without proper warning because of unprecedented demand. I promised to update you as soon as I could. And I can confirm today that every application submitted for capital grants before the pause in November will be taken forward, and following this, we will reopen the ELM capital grants offer this summer.
I’m also pleased to announce that we’re investing £30 million pounds to increase payment rates in Higher Level Stewardship with immediate effect to bring them more closely in line with our other farming schemes. Something the NFU and others have long called for. You just called for it again, Tom. These farmers are the pioneers of nature-friendly farming, often based in upland areas. They deliver high-quality environmental outcomes; now, finally, they will get a fair price for their work.
There’s a lot to be done to make British farming profitable and viable for the long term. I know we can only get there if we build the future together.
We will work with Tom, the NFU and farmers around the country to support farmers to keep producing the food we love to eat. This requires a new approach that recognises farms are businesses, and businesses need to turn a fair profit.
I’ll play my part in creating the conditions for that to happen. I know you’ll play your part in building resilient businesses that will innovate and succeed. Together, we will overcome the challenges this sector faces and give British farming the bright future this country knows you deserve.