The Times - UK (2020-10-14)

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the times | Wednesday October 14 2020 1GM RM 27


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Tories are squandering our greener future


By rejecting tougher safeguards on animal and environmental standards, ministers are alienating their natural allies


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“The demise of manufacturing in the
UK has been a tragedy. I don’t want
farming to go the same way.”
There was a moment when Britain,
the third biggest food market
globally, could have decided in the
wake of Brexit to lead the world in
food standards and environmentally
friendly farming. “We will be
throwing away the opportunity of
encouraging a great industry to lead
the world,” says Villiers, now free to
speak her mind on the backbenches.
“We should be projecting our values
through our new trade policies.”
Instead it is now clear that the
government has a very different
vision of the countryside after

Covid-19 and Brexit. It dreams of a
land that is 30 per cent rewilded,
with beavers and otters, bison and
boar roaming the lakes and the
dales, while the rest is open to being
tarmacked over and covered with
new housing estates.
Many farms will disappear, and the
fields and hedgerows will be
untended, as our basic foodstuffs will
be shipped or flown in more cheaply
from abroad, from countries that
care less about food standards.
Mr Johnson, brought up in wellies
on one of the most beautiful hill
farms on Exmoor, must know what
he is doing, and he should at least
be honest about the reality of his
plans for a new Jerusalem.

school cafeterias, care homes and
hospitals. Henry Dimbleby, who
leads the National Food Strategy,
explains that the well-off can
afford to be less concerned because
they can buy their way out by
favouring expensive luxury brands
and organic food, creating a two-tier
food system.
In the past few months farmers
have come to be seen as some of the
most trusted and valued workers in

the country, while politicians’
reputations have sunk further. But
farmers won’t be able to compete if
they are rearing their products to
higher ethical standards than their
foreign counterparts. Many of the
country’s 140,000 farms will go out
of business and more food will have
to be imported, just when the British
have embraced the idea of
supporting local producers and
shopping at farmers’ markets. This is
what Dyson, who is trying to make
Britain self-sufficient by pioneering
new farming methods, most fears.
“Why import when we have some of
the best soil in the world and can
grow most food here?” he told me.

Many of the country’s


140,000 farms will


go out of business


adhere to similar animal welfare
standards so there is a level
playing field.
But the government has refused.
Liz Truss, the trade secretary, may
say she loves British cheddar but she
appears to be encouraging ultra-
processed imports. “I don’t want to
stop developing countries exporting
their goods to us,” she insists. The
government’s concern is that
countries such as the US and
Australia will not sign up to a trade
deal if they are expected to conform
to higher standards.
The Americans have made it clear
that they believe their chlorinated
chicken and hormone beef is safe to

eat but the conditions in which many
of their animals are raised would
concern both meat eaters and vegans
in this country, as would the
Australians’ use of antibiotics in
livestock farming, and insecticides
currently banned under EU rules.
Detractors insist that only the rich
can afford to be concerned about
higher food standards but polling
for the consumer rights group
Which? shows it’s the least affluent
10 per cent who are most concerned
about being fed substandard burgers,
pork sausages and BLT sandwiches.
They also care most about animal
cruelty and count on the
government to maintain quality in
supermarkets, fast food outlets,

D


uring the pandemic the
British have rekindled
their love of the
countryside. Farmers’
approval ratings soared as

they kept food on the supermarket


shelves and milk on the breakfast


table, and “cottagecore” —


celebrating such pursuits as foraging,


baking and pottering — became the


hashtag for the new good life. Boris


Johnson, in his conference speech


last week, set out his vision of Britain


in 2030, where people would wander


among millions of newly planted


trees and picnic in new “wild belts”


across the countryside.


Many now feel that those rural


dreams have been crushed. This


week the government overturned


amendments to the new Agriculture


Bill that would have ensured


imported food meets domestic legal


standards after Brexit. By rejecting


these calls it has alienated an


astonishing cross-section of farmers,


chefs, environmentalists and


consumers, and united the Cumbrian
shepherd James Rebanks with Sir
James Dyson, Britain’s richest man.
The former environment secretary
Theresa Villiers voted against the
government, as did Neil Parish,
Conservative chairman of the
environment select committee, and a
dozen other Tory MPs in rural
constituencies, along with Labour
and the Lib Dems. Jamie Oliver and
Delia Smith are incandescent, Prue
Leith from The Great British Bake Off
has spoken out, as has Joe Wicks, the
fitness guru. Chris Sherwood, chief
executive of the RSPCA animal
welfare charity, says the government
has reneged on its manifesto promise

to safeguard standards.


In just a few weeks a million
people have added their names to a
National Farmers’ Union petition
begging the government to
reconsider but the prime minister
still hasn’t met Minette Batters, the
NFU president. All they are asking
for is proper scrutiny of potential
trade deals that can run into tens of
thousands of pages, and for countries
that want to export to the UK to

A million people have


added their names


to an NFU petition


Alice


Thomson


@alicettimes

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