Energy Generation (Food Waste)

I am grateful to my hon. Friend who, as so often in matters to do with food, was an early mover in this area. I am sorry to hear that his investment was not as fruitful as it might well be if he were able to make it today. In other European countries, generating energy from farm waste is significantly more advanced. In Germany, there are about 4,000 plants. My hon. Friend the Member for Shrewsbury and Atcham (Daniel Kawczynski) asked whether the Government should be doing more. Only as recently as last month, they finally produced a vision for anaerobic digestion, which I am sure the Minister will refer to. Their vision is to encourage by 2020 some 1,000 farms across the country to use anaerobic digestion to deal with farm slurry. I applaud that, although it was not the Government’s idea—I cannot claim that it was mine, as it came from the National Farmers Union, which produced exactly that figure in October last year—and welcome its adoption as Government policy. The process is not quite as efficient for farm slurry as it is for food waste, as the animals, in generating the slurry, consume some of the nutrients that would otherwise be available directly in the food. Some by-products of farm waste, through slurry, are not as nutrient rich for the fertiliser that comes out at the other end, if I may put it that way, whereas food waste has the benefit of providing a nutrient-rich fertiliser, which is another reason why anaerobic digestion is a better use of food waste than incineration, due to the quality of the by-product. Having touched on the Government’s new vision for anaerobic digestion, I should discuss the other aspect, which is that they are looking for 100 commercial plants to use food and other organic materials to generate electricity through anaerobic digestion. They have helped to fund the existing two plants, including the plant in Ludlow. While that is welcome, they have been, to put it generously, slow to recognise the potential of the technology. They have been asleep at the wheel, and I am grateful that they are now catching up to where other parties have reached in seeing the potential of reliable renewable energy from food waste.