Food Security

My hon. Friend is entirely right. I am very much aware of that statement. Of course, it was the right hon. Member for Derby, South (Margaret Beckett) who signed the statement to which I have just referred. If the Secretary of State is to achieve anything tonight, I hope that he will start by publicly stating that he has ditched that policy. Of course, there will be those who say that there is special pleading by farmers, but I want to assure the House that there is not. There are many reasons why hon. Members want to see a vibrant and productive agricultural industry, but the real reason—which I hope the Secretary of State will agree with—is very important. In a world in which supply and demand are now at best in balance, increasing demand will push up prices. As part of the projected population rise to which I have referred, it is predicted that Africa's population will more than double by 2050. No matter how much production in Africa can be increased by husbandry, political stability and technology, that continent will still be buying vast quantities of food on the world market. We, as a relatively rich country, might well be able to meet our needs, but we will be competing head to head with the poorer countries. Where is the morality in that? Increasing domestic production is not selfish; in fact, it is quite the opposite. Before turning to what needs to be done, let us look at the recent past and the reality behind the Government's claims. In the past 10 years, there has been a steady trend: production of all major food items has declined in this country. Cereal production has declined by some 19 per cent., meat production by 17.5 per cent. and milk production by 5 per cent. Overall, our contribution to indigenous food in our market has fallen from 81.8 per cent. in 1997 to 73.9 per cent. last year. That is the 74 per cent. to which the Government refer in their amendment to our motion. It is laughable that the Government's amendment claims that we are somehow okay because we are doing better than we were in the 1950s. The Secretary of State—or whoever drafted the amendment—seems to ignore the fact that the population of the world has more than doubled since then, and that it has risen dramatically in Britain. He might just as well have cited the 1930s, when we were really in a deep depression. The figures were even worse then, and today's figures would look even better by comparison.