Dairy Industry

I do not believe that everything that comes from the European Union is positive. One of our problems is our tendency to gold-plate regulations in this country, whereas others are a little more flexible in their interpretation. It is important to note the welcome changes to the price that supermarkets—notably Tesco—pay farmers. There is not a single Tesco in Westmorland and Lonsdale, and I am not about to start a campaign to get one, but although the supermarkets that we do have, Asda and Morrisons, would do well to follow that example, we should not put too much emphasis on the Tesco move, because many of the 1,000 British dairy farmers whose milk is sold via Tesco will not benefit from the system. I asked a very well-connected dairy farmer who lives down the road from me—he will know that I am referring to him when he reads Hansard—and he had heard of barely anyone who counted among Tesco’s chosen few. The answer is not voluntary action by one or two supermarkets, motivated, no doubt—perhaps I am cynical—by a desire to avoid bad publicity. The answer must be careful intervention. On the subject of public relations, supermarkets are happy, as has already been mentioned, to display fair trade produce on their shelves, and there is a very welcome recognition, among consumers and retailers alike, that fair trade and free trade are not the same thing. Is it not ironic, however, that shoppers will go down one aisle in the supermarket, purchasing the fair trade coffee and tea products, and getting a warm ethical glow as they do so, and then turn their trolley down the next aisle to buy milk that has been produced by ruthlessly exploited British farmers? The fair trade movement is very important in helping to tackle international poverty and exploitation, and I hope that the fair trade brand will be extended or replicated to give consumers ethical choices about home-grown produce. Dairy farmers in south Cumbria have expressed deep concerns about Ministers’ exhortations for them to be more efficient. They are committed to achieving greater efficiency, but they suspect that the Government have missed the point. Dairy farmers say that the abysmal price that they receive for their produce—up to 4p a litre less than it costs them to produce—makes it almost impossible to reinvest in their businesses and to work on improving efficiency. If the Minister wants dairy farmers to be efficient, he must ensure that the market is corrected, so that they can reinvest in achieving greater efficiency. The lakes and dales of Cumbria have a jaw-dropping beauty, but that landscape does not occur naturally. It is the result of centuries of careful management. At the heart of that management is the maintenance of grazing livestock. Our tourism product is paid for largely by farmers, so taking a laissez-faire approach to the crisis in the dairy farming industry is likely to have far-reaching effects. It will significantly damage tourism and will deprive environmental bodies, such as Natural England, of the partners that they need to deliver important environmental programmes. If the Government were bold enough to intervene to give our dairy farmers a fair deal, it would be a far-sighted investment of the highest order.