Food Industry Competitiveness

I am delighted to have the chance to speak in this debate. I echo the comments made by my hon. Friend the Member for South-East Cambridgeshire (Mr. Paice). It is good to have such a debate in Government time and to welcome this belated food strategy. Many of the component parts, and certainly several of the good component parts, follow long-standing policy initiatives and issues set out by my hon. Friends on the Front Bench, in particular by my hon. Friend the Member for South-East Cambridgeshire, who has done such a tremendous job in his position over the years and speaks with knowledge and great integrity. I would like to set out the background to this debate. As we know, British agriculture has had some difficulties over the years and trends in self-sufficiency have been poor. We reckon that we have lost self-sufficiency in indigenous food of about 9 per cent.—from 82 per cent. in 1998 to 73 per cent. in 2007. Most of us who represent rural and agricultural areas know of the problems with livestock, the declining numbers of beef and dairy cows, and the pig industry. Many Members will remember the lobby by the pig industry a couple of years ago, which tried to alert the Government to the issues and problems, including the loss of 40 per cent. of the national herd between 1997 and 2008. The background to the problems with food, farming and agriculture are well known to us and have over the years caused great distress to those who represent these areas. However, I would like to demonstrate the resilience of all parts of the food chain by looking at one particular constituency—my own—and seeing how, in many aspects of the Government's core objectives in the food strategy, my own constituency illustrates what can be done. It is simply a symbol for other areas that can do the same. I start, however, with a matter that is particular to my constituency. I am lucky to have Peter Kendall, the National Farmers Union president, as a constituent of mine. He farms a well-known family farm in Eyeworth—a popular family and a popular man—and has been a far-sighted leader of the NFU. He has done some terrific things to accentuate the positive aspects of farming and to get the farming industry and farmers to proclaim what they can do, instead of always being seen sitting on the sidelines saying what cannot be done.