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Organic Food Production
6. Mr. David Borrow (South Ribble): What action his Department is taking to assist farmers wishing to produce organic food. [93390]
The Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (Mr. Elliot Morley): We have allocated more than £16 million of aid under the organic farming scheme, we are funding the organic conversion information service and we are spending more than £2 million this year on organic research and development.
Mr. Borrow: I welcome the Government's increased spending on the organic farming scheme and the review announced last week or the week before into that scheme. Given that more than 70 per cent. of organic food consumed in the United Kingdom is produced overseas, will my hon. Friend consider setting clear targets in that
review to reduce dependence in the UK on the import of organic food and to increase production of such food in the UK?
Mr. Morley: That is certainly a helpful suggestion. Obviously, we want the organic sector in Britain to expand and we have committed substantial extra resources to that. The area under organic production increased by 400 per cent. in the past 12 months. It is right to say that 70 per cent. of organic food is imported, but we are self-sufficient in some organic products, such as organic meat, and one reason for the review is to consider those areas where we should be giving some priority to addressing the marketing balance.
Mr. Owen Paterson (North Shropshire): Many of my farmers in the dairy sector are switching to organic milk production. In order to keep public confidence in organically produced milk, which is not treated in any way--it is not pasteurised--it is fundamental that the Government resolve the problem of bovine TB as fast as possible. Of the 10 proposed triplets, the Government have set up only two and that is not good enough. When will the Government take some real action on bovine TB?
Mr. Morley: Bovine TB is a serious problem facing the dairy herd, with welfare issues for badgers as well as cattle. We have set up five triplets and we are implementing the Krebs programme, on which there was a great deal of discussion. The advice from independent scientific groups revealed great difficulties in dealing with bovine TB, but this is an issue that we cannot ignore, and, difficult though it is, we are addressing it.
Pesticides
7. Mrs. Anne Campbell (Cambridge): What assessment he has made of the operation of the regulatory framework in respect of pesticides use in the United Kingdom. [93391]
The Minister of State, Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (Ms Joyce Quin): Pesticides are strictly regulated in this country under national and EU rules. The EU regime for plant protection products is intended to replace national rules but has made slow progress. However, we consider our national regime sufficiently strong to protect public health and the environment until the EU system is fully up and running.
Mrs. Campbell: I welcome my right hon. Friend to her new responsibilities on the Front Bench, and I invite her to agree that genetic modification of crops offers a huge potential for a reduction in the use of pesticides in agricultural crops. Does she further agree that, for that reason if for no other, it is important that we resist the demands that are coming forward for the abandonment of genetically modified field trials?
Ms Quin: As my hon. Friend knows, we believe that the field trials are important and should be proceeded with. I have recently looked at some of the past year's debates in Hansard. We have had a good debate on these issues here, but often in the press there has been a great
deal of scaremongering and inaccurate reporting, which does none of us, and in particular the British public, a service.
I also agree with my hon. Friend that we need to consider evidence on the potential reduction in the use of pesticides. Information reveals examples of a significant reduction in pesticide use, and it is obviously important to encourage the development of technology that helps to reduce the use of pesticides generally by much better targeting and through the use of much more sophisticated equipment.
Mr. James Paice (South-East Cambridgeshire):
On behalf of the official Opposition, I welcome the right hon. Lady to her new role in the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food--we are pleased to see her. I also welcome the statement, which her right hon. Friend the Minister repeated last night, that the Ministry is opposed to a pesticides tax. We all welcome and support that position, but will she explain to us and to British farmers why the same arable and livestock pesticides are up to 30 per cent. cheaper in Europe than in this country? British farmers are being penalised by unfair competition because British regulations prevent them from importing those same pesticides to replace the more expensive ones available in this country.
Ms Quin:
The regulations to which the hon. Gentleman refers were in force under the Conservative Government. I have described how we are taking those regulations forward at national and European level, although it is important to look at the cost structure in such issues--and we are doing so at present.
9. Shona McIsaac (Cleethorpes):
When he expects to complete his report on compensation for distant-water trawlermen. [93394]
The Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (Mr. Elliot Morley):
Agriculture and Trade Ministers are jointly examining the case for providing compensation, and I hope that that will be completed shortly.
Shona McIsaac:
My question was about compensation for distant-water trawlermen. I believe that Question 8 was taken earlier, which may have led to some confusion.
Madam Speaker:
Would the Minister repeat the answer?
Mr. Morley:
I shall repeat it slowly.
Agriculture and Trade Ministers are jointly examining the case for providing compensation, and I hope that that will be completed shortly.
Madam Speaker:
The hon. Lady might just say thank you.
Shona McIsaac:
We are here to serve, Madam Speaker.
Do my hon. Friend and his colleagues on the Front Bench appreciate the deep sense of injustice felt by people in the fishing communities of Cleethorpes, Grimsby, Hull and Fleetwood when they keep hearing of the amount of money that goes to certain sectors of the farming community, to which my hon. Friend the Member for Bolsover (Mr. Skinner) referred earlier? They feel that time and again, they are being overlooked. When will the Department put right that injustice, which was perpetrated throughout the Tory years? All the warm words in the world will not heat the homes or pay the bills for those men.
Mr. Morley:
My hon. Friend makes a powerful case on behalf of distant-water fishermen, as have my hon. Friends the Members for Great Grimsby (Mr. Mitchell), for Hull, West and Hessle (Mr. Johnson) and for Blackpool, North and Fleetwood (Mrs. Humble). The matter is under consideration, but, in all fairness, this is not a simple issue. We are dealing with events of more than 20 years ago, as well as the issues of cost, the tracing of people who were sailing in those fleets and the mechanism and legal process through which we could deal with the matter.
However, my hon. Friend makes a strong argument and has a powerful case. For that reason, there will be a joint study by the two Departments and consideration will be given to how the matter can be addressed and whether it will be possible to do so.
Mr. Patrick Nicholls (Teignbridge):
What confidence can hon. Members on either side of the House have in what the Parliamentary Secretary has just said, when one considers the shambles that the Government are making of safety compensation? Does the hon. Gentleman recall that, just before the European elections, the Deputy Prime Minister travelled to the west country to say very publicly that he had overruled the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, and that he was restoring the safety compensation grants that his right hon. Friend had cancelled? This week, the Western Morning News reports that a MAFF spokesman has now said that the Minister is overruling the Deputy Prime Minister and those compensation grants will not be paid at all. Does not the British fishing industry, which has a right to expect better from the Government, looks at that shambles and views the Government with a mixture of pity and contempt?
Mr. Morley:
The British fishing industry has a right to expect better than that question from the hon. Gentleman. The Deputy Prime Minister has made it clear that fishing safety grants will be reinstated, and MAFF has made no attempt to overrule that.
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