Food Security
Debate between Lord Gardiner of Kimble and Lord Katz
Lord Katz (Lab)
My noble friend is of course entirely correct to underline the importance of the food manufacturing sector and the fact that the Government’s new farming road map recognises it as an important part of the food supply chain. We are supporting food manufacturers with export support, innovation funding and growth programmes; we are working with industry to address barriers such as regulation and labour shortages; and we are strengthening supply chain resilience by monitoring risks and improving preparedness for shocks, and considering targeted interventions where appropriate.
We are driving growth and innovation by funding research and development, including £25 million from Defra and nearly £50 million from UK Research and Innovation. Alongside this, we are working across government to improve market access for UK food and drink exports, to support healthier and more sustainable products and to provide the long-term stability that businesses need to invest. Taken together, these actions are helping to build a more productive, resilient and competitive UK food sector, supporting jobs, growth and food security.
Lord Gardiner of Kimble (Con)
My Lords, it was your Lordships’ House that agreed that, instead of five years, as was in the Agriculture Bill, we should consider these matters every three years. It is very important for His Majesty’s Government to keep this under review, because we are in an even more volatile situation: I ask the Minister to comment on that. It is also fair to say that I know no farmer who feels in a confident position. We should be ensuring that British food production is put at a much higher priority as a matter of national resilience, as we have seen increasing volatility across the world.
Lord Katz (Lab)
The noble Lord of course has a great deal of experience in this. On his first question around the frequency of the report, he will know that it is a huge undertaking. It takes over a year to produce and usually weighs in at well over 300 pages, covering five themes, from global availability to household access to food security. The annual digest is shorter and more focused, which, as he commented, focuses on more material factors and recent changes in food supply.
When it comes to wider government support for farmers and the agricultural sector, the Government have allocated a record £11.8 billion to sustainable farming and food production over the Parliament, and the food sector is one of the UK’s 13 critical national infrastructure sectors. That tells the whole House how seriously we take it.
Livestock Grazing on Dartmoor National Park
Debate between Lord Gardiner of Kimble and Lord Katz
Lord Katz (Lab)
I thank my noble friend for that. I will not direct the movement of ponies or any other livestock from this Dispatch Box, but it is an interesting idea. I am sure that Natural England and lots of people on Dartmoor—commoners, graziers and others—would like to keep all their ponies there. But it is an interesting idea.
Lord Gardiner of Kimble (Con)
My Lords, I ask the Minister to reflect on the importance of balance in the countryside between the interests of farming and conservation. One of the lessons I think we should take from this is that there has not been proper co-ordination of the impact on rural communities of this proposal. I hope that, within the Defra family, there will be a much greater concentration on co-ordination of the impact. The noble Baroness spoke about the importance of the pony in dealing with Molinia, an invasive grass. This is a key part of why this endangered species, the Dartmoor pony, should be cherished by everyone, rather than a potential reduction in numbers even being thought of.
Lord Katz (Lab)
The noble Lord is absolutely right, as I would expect from his long experience and interest in these matters, about the importance of tackling that invasive species, Molinia, and the role that both ponies and cattle have in tackling it. That is why Natural England is looking at the best way to get appropriate grazing in the appropriate parts of Dartmoor. To go to his wider point, though, we recognise the important role of countryside stewardship that commons graziers, farmers and indeed people who live in the countryside take. That is why Defra is bringing together partners from across Whitehall and beyond, through its Defra-led Rural Taskforce, to make sure that all its policies are rural-proofed from the get-go, rather than there being a patch-and-mend approach to policies after the event.