Food, Farming and the Environment

I shall do my best to get hold of further information. In the end, if a management buy-out is to be successful, finance is required. I thought that it was right to try to buy a little time—that was why I took the decision with One NorthEast—and I am sorry that that has not proved possible. I was glad that the right hon. Member for Fylde (Mr. Jack) asked his question. We will determine whether we can provide any assistance by using the rural development programme for England flexibly, but I assure him that we continue to work closely with RDAs and others, including the Dairy Farmers of Britain member council, which continues to take responsibility for those affected by the collapse. I will, of course, keep the House informed about developments. Despite such difficulties and other pressures, agriculture overall is pretty strong. When the Office for National Statistics published figures earlier this year showing that every sector of the UK economy had shrunk over the previous quarter, there was one exception: agriculture. As the House will be aware, the food and drink industry is the UK's largest manufacturing sector, although it is not always recognised and understood as such. It employs more than 3.5 million people. In the EU, we are part of the world's biggest agricultural exporter. The UK alone exported £12 billion-worth of food and drink in 2007, and farming incomes rose last year. I want—indeed, the whole House wants—a thriving farming industry. Farmers want that, too, but the sector faces some very big challenges and we have to be honest about them. Food security hit the headlines last year, as soaring prices abroad caused unrest and put pressure on family budgets here at home, and, although prices may have fallen back again, the events of 2008 served as a warning to us all. The question is, how should we react in those circumstances? We should not, I would argue, aim for self-sufficiency, create targets for food production or go back to the subsidies, intervention and environmental degradation of the past. We need to take food security seriously, however, and that is why we will publish an assessment of our food security, setting out how we are doing, and why the UK's best way forward will be not only to produce its own food, but to trade with others. As I have said, I want British agriculture to be able to produce as much food as possible, and, as I told the Oxford farming conference, no ifs no buts. The only requirements are that, first, consumers want to buy the food and, secondly, the way in which it is produced sustains our environment and safeguards our landscape.