My Lords, I want to speak to the whole group of amendments as I find the interrelationship between the various amendments on this occasion particularly interesting. My noble friend Lord Whitty has been talking about food security. This group focuses on food security not only in the context in which he mentioned it—although that is vital—but in the context of the most unstable period in world affairs that we can remember. It is very important to think of food security in that context as well.
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Covid-19 has reminded us starkly of the relationship between people’s well-being and basic health and their vulnerability to diseases of this kind. It is no accident that the concentrations of some of the worst instances of Covid-19 are in areas of poverty—and poverty is, of course, related to diet. What we are seeing is that diet and the quality of food are essential to a healthy, vigorous nation that is able to resist onslaughts of this kind.
Another interesting aspect of this group of amendments is that it looks at how we reconnect people with the whole process of agriculture; it is not the only group to do so. In our urbanised society, countless people do not begin to understand or think
about the production of food. I declare an interest as one of my daughters is very much involved in this kind of activity; the emphasis on reconnecting people in communities with the process of agriculture and encouraging them to see the relationship between what happens on farms in their area and what they consume, which is vital.
The other point that comes out of these amendments is that we must always think about the best possible sustainable use of land, not just what we can produce from it. We need to consider sustainability and the effect on the environment of the way we use land. We talk about the effect of the environment on agriculture, but agriculture has an impact on the environment; we therefore have to think very hard about getting the balance right between arable and animal farming—and about what happens when we rely too much on animal farming. I say this as a non-vegetarian but as somebody who takes this point very seriously indeed.
Having got to know the Minister quite well over the years, I am sure that he is the sort of man who will take this group particularly seriously, because he has this kind of outlook on human affairs—an awareness of the interrelationship between all these dimensions. The point I want to make above all is that we should stop thinking about agriculture simply as a segment of our society to be managed; we must think of it as centrally related to the whole of social policy and the issues that confront us.