Food, Farming and the Environment

First, I ought to apologise on behalf of my hon. Friend the Member for Westmorland and Lonsdale (Tim Farron), who cannot be here for family reasons; he would, of course, otherwise have contributed to the debate. We often talk about Government's primary duty being to defend the people, but there is a second primary duty, which is to feed the people—to ensure continuity of food supply. There has been a feeling in recent years that perhaps the Government have forgotten the key priority of ensuring a prosperous farming and processing industry that enables us to maintain continuity of supply. There is a widespread feeling that agriculture has somehow been airbrushed out of the political system altogether. It does not appear in the name of a Department, and it does not feature in our regular Question Times to anything like the extent that it did. It has been almost impossible to get a debate on the issue. That is why I welcome today's debate so greatly. I have called for such a debate year after year, in various contexts and wearing different hats. At least we have perhaps again established the principle that we should have regular debates on agriculture. I invite Ministers to engage far more with the agricultural community than they have in the past few years. Of course, they attend the Oxford farming conference, but I would like to see a Secretary of State at the Royal Bath and West of England Society agricultural show. One always used to, but in the past few years, we have not seen a Minister attend the Royal Bath and West, or the annual dairy industry dinner in my constituency. I think that the hon. Member for South-East Cambridgeshire (Mr. Paice) snuck into my constituency and visited the Royal Bath and West; I am always happy to see him. [Interruption.] The hon. Member for Arundel and South Downs (Nick Herbert) visited, too. If they had only written to me to tell me that they were coming to my constituency, I would know these things, but they are very welcome. I always attend the show, and I always take a great deal away from it, in terms of making contact with my constituents.