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9.18 pm
Mrs. Janet Dean (Burton): I greatly welcome the debate, although I am saddened that, when Conservative Members choose to debate agriculture, as they have on several occasions, they concentrate on blaming the Labour
Government for all its ills. I can only imagine that they do so either to atone for the mistakes that they made in government or because they cannot quite believe that many Labour Members represent rural areas. My constituency has two National Farmers Union branches and a 5b area, and is probably unique because it also contains an urban area with objective 2 status, so structural funds are very important to it.
As I have said in the House previously, I am a farmer's daughter and I lived on a farm until I was 19. It is rich for Conservative Members to presume that Labour Members know nothing about rural matters. I find that quite offensive, especially as the Conservative Government were clearly to blame for the BSE crisis, which is still having a great impact on agriculture and on the agricultural problems that we face. They also did not do much for the rural community when they introduced bus deregulation.
I pay tribute to Ministers for what they have achieved. During the Minister's recent visit to Staffordshire, farmers welcomed his honest way of talking to them and addressing the issues and problems that they raised with him. They also welcome the consultations that the Government have instigated. During the two years I have been meeting farmers in my constituency and making representations to Ministers, many of the issues that have been raised with me have been addressed. Farmers raised the matter of agrimonetary compensation with many of us and Ministers listened.
Ministers acknowledge that the problems of British agriculture are great. I particularly welcome some of the announcements that have been made tonight, because they have addressed issues that have recently been raised with me by farmers in my constituency. The difficulties with small abattoirs are important, especially if we want to develop the farmers markets to which my hon. Friend the Member for Stroud (Mr. Drew) referred.
I also welcome the Minister's statement that welfare standards will be considered during discussions at the World Trade Organisation. Farmers in my area want a level playing field with the rest of Europe. Welfare standards that apply in this country should be taken on board by the rest of Europe and by the World Trade Organisation. I welcome the fact that we are modifying the charges immediately for abattoirs, with deferment of the specified risk material costs, and that we are examining further the costs of abattoirs in this country compared with those in the rest of Europe. I particularly welcome the consideration of welfare standards with regard to pigmeat.
It is not always the Opposition who raise agricultural issues. My hon. Friend the Member for Staffordshire, Moorlands (Charlotte Atkins) secured an Adjournment debate on badgers and TB in Staffordshire. That is of particular concern in the northern parishes--the same northern parishes as form the objective 5b area in my constituency and adjoin the Staffordshire-Derbyshire border. There is concern about the dramatic increase in the number of farms whose herds have been affected. We want that problem to be addressed, and I hope that that area can in the future be one of the trial areas.
Mr. William Thompson (West Tyrone):
I welcome the Minister's statement on the meat hygiene expenses and the specified risk material costs. Clearly, any such statement has to be welcomed. I also welcome the opportunity to debate the whole farming issue and the crisis in the United Kingdom. The situation is especially critical in Northern Ireland, because of the greater emphasis that we place on farming. Farming is the largest industry in Northern Ireland, and we have many small farmers.
If I lived on the mainland I would agree entirely with the motion, but because parts of it do not apply to Northern Ireland my party will abstain in the vote. It would be too much for an Opposition party to support the Government amendment, given its talk of approving and of welcoming initiatives; but we appreciate what the Minister has done since taking office. He has visited Northern Ireland and met representatives of the industry there, and I think that when he talked to representatives of the pig industry he understood the difficulties of that industry for the first time.
As for beef, we are able to export it, but the loss of markets is causing us great difficulties, as is the high value of the pound. I understand that exports are now running at about 20 tonnes a week, as against 1,000 tonnes before the crisis. I know that there have been marketing initiatives, but I do not think that exports will reach their former level for some time. We look forward to the introduction of the date-based system, which will provide much more beef for export, and to the end of the ban on beef on the bone, which, I understand, provides cuts that are more attractive to the export industry. I note from a written answer that when Scotland has its Parliament it will be able to lift the ban, and I wonder what impact that will have on the rest of the United Kingdom.
Like the Minister, I am aware of the deep crisis in the pigmeat industry. Many pig farmers are heavily overdrawn; some are suffering from depression, and others are in despair. Although prices have increased somewhat, they are nowhere near high enough to meet running costs: indeed, I think that they are paying only for the meal fed to animals. We have a long way to go yet.
The amendment mentions Agenda 2000. We welcome the extra quota for Northern Ireland, although how it is to be distributed has yet to be decided. I hope that we will have some news about that soon. We also welcome the peace and reconciliation money that we have received. It represents quite a lot of income for Northern Ireland, and to an extent will compensate for the loss of objective 1 status.
One of our greatest problems in regard to farming overall is that we are in Europe, and must make and fight our case there. Because other nations have their own interests, progress is always difficult. Not very much progress has yet been made in reshaping the CAP, but there will never be proper scope for real farming, with proper profitability, until we completely reorganise the CAP movement.
Ms Sally Keeble (Northampton, North):
I very much welcome the opportunity of speaking in the debate.
The problems in agriculture are profound, and it does no service to the industry to try to simplify its problems and to turn them into party political issues, as the Opposition motion attempts to do. We need a careful strategy that will take the industry through an extremely difficult time.
The strategy should not only take notice of the industry's rightful economic interests, but deal with some of the most topical political concerns of our time--including animal welfare, about which the public feel strongly; food safety and public health, about which the public feel very strongly; environmental issues, about which is there is huge concern; and scientific issues. Current scientific developments--such as thosein genetically modified products--could transform agriculture and the way in which it is practised, about which there is great public concern, and on which the Conservative party has been in the forefront in opposition.
All those issues are of profound interest not only to the farming community, but to the wider public. It does no service to anyone to try to draw artificial divides between the two communities--rural and urban, and agriculture and consumers.
The debate has already dealt at great length with the price issue, which is already well known and has been well rehearsed. I very much welcome the measures that my right hon. Friend the Minister has both announced today and taken in the past year.
I should like, extremely briefly, to address a few issues, one of which is the distortions caused by the common agricultural policy--which is perhaps the only issue on which I share profound concern with my predecessor as hon. Member for Northampton, North.
Farm incomes are not related to prices, but are downto subsidies. I have spoken to farmers in the Northamptonshire area who gain half their income from subsidies--which is a measure not only of the distortions caused by the common agricultural policy, and the need to deal with those distortions, but of the effects that exchange rates have had on farm incomes.
Mr. Hayes:
Will the hon. Lady give way?
Ms Keeble:
I shall not give way, as we are restrained by time. However, I am sure that I shall have many discussions with the hon. Gentleman on those issues.
The distortions also demonstrate the profound problems of reforming the common agricultural policy. Removing price supports from farmers will be extremely painful for them and will be difficult to effect. Although we all pay lip service to the results of removing price supports, there will be quite serious consequences for the farmers who lose that subsidy--which is the real issue, and which made it so difficult to make progress in Europe on Agenda 2000. Some of the other European Governments realised the impact that subsidy loss would have on farm incomes and felt the pressure from their farming community. It is a real tribute to the skill of our Minister that he was able to keep the debate going and to achieve some movement on an extremely difficult issue.
Although we all pay lip service also to the issue of a level playing field, achieving it is often much more difficult than we realise. The first issue on which we always say that we want a level playing field is animal welfare. I suspect that if some members of the public saw
some of the farming methods that are used, they would ask for higher animal welfare standards. Raising standards in farms abroad will be very difficult to achieve, as will keeping pace with public concerns about animal welfare.
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