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Mr. Burnett: I do not believe that a United Kingdom company tendered for the Devonshire contract. Is the hon. Gentleman aware of that?
Mr. McLoughlin: Well that's all right then.
Mr. Yeo: Exactly. I am not sure that the lack of a United Kingdom company tender will necessarily reassure those parents who now know that their children are being fed products that were produced illegally in another country.
On 1 July, the Minister said:
Mr. Brown:
I have only just sent the letters because I wanted them to be part of a concerted campaign that we have launched in discussion with farmers and the industry. As I said in my address, we all have a part to play. I invite the hon. Gentleman, in a completely bipartisan spirit, to join me in the campaign to urge public authorities to purchase British because of the welfare and production advantages of so doing.
Mr. Yeo:
It is a question not of my joining him but of his joining me. We pointed out last November in our document "A Fair Deal" that one of our four key aims was to raise public sector purchases of meat to that standard. The Minister has just revealed the sequence of events. On 1 July, he said:
Mr. Brown:
I have already explained that I wanted to send the letters as part of a concerted campaign with
Mr. Yeo:
The facts will speak for themselves and the record is now clear: the Minister would have done nothing if he had not been badgered, week after week and month after month, by Conservative Members.
Mr. Gill:
It may assist my hon. Friend to know that the Minister gave that answer on 1 July because, in frustration, I had asked him what he had done or what influence he had with his colleagues in the Department of Health and the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions, to whom I had written in my capacity as president of the British Pig Association weeks before that exchange in the House of Commons. So the situation is much worse than my hon. Friend describes.
Mr. Yeo:
I am grateful to my hon. Friend for that information. I agree entirely with the verdict of my right hon. Friend the Member for Bridgwater (Mr. King). Those pig farmers who are calculating from week to week whether to stay in business or to close down will be very disappointed with the overall impact of the Government's announcement today. The Minister must understand that there is a strong possibility that his tenure at the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food will cover the period when a large chunk of the British pig industry closed down. Thousands of small businesses, which have been built up through years of hard work, will be destroyed.
I shall leave to my hon. Friend the Member for South-East Cambridgeshire (Mr. Paice), who will wind up the debate for the Opposition, our concerns about dairy farmers, bovine tuberculosis and the difficulties that have been imposed on Milk Marque by the Government's dogmatic decision not to allow it to invest in processing until it has been broken up into smaller units.
I shall pass over our concerns about last week's reports about the Cabinet Office paper recommending that prime agricultural land should no longer be maintained in food production. I am not sure what message that sends about the Government's long-term intentions for agriculture. I shall also pass over our concerns about the proposal to add burdens to farmers in the form of a pesticide tax and a climate change levy. Those measures will not achieve the environmental gains that are claimed for them, but they will certainly help a few more farmers to go out of business.
The Government's announcement about organic production is extremely welcome. I welcome the fact that the Minister has responded to the heavy demand by organic farmers for assistance with conversion in the current year. That will be appreciated by everyone who is interested in organic food.
I was concerned by the rumour yesterday about a U-turn on the timetable for the commercial planting of genetically modified crops because that seemed to be a tactic to divert attention from the main issue of the day. If the Government have seen the light on GM crops, I welcome that. I support any decision to delay the commercial planting of GM crops until the research that
is under way has demonstrated that those crops are environmentally safe. A designated period of three years would be artificial; we need to proceed on the basis of sound science. I urge the Government to increase significantly the buffer zones that surround trials of genetically modified crops to protect neighbouring conventional and organic farms.
British agriculture is in crisis. The Government's response has veered from irrelevance and hostility at worst to complacency and inaction at best. The Minister has lost the confidence of the Prime Minister and it seems, from the almost empty Treasury Bench, that not many members of his Cabinet support him either. For all his sympathetic manner, he is in danger now of losing the confidence of the farmers too. His speech, which lasted almost an hour, contained little of substance that will reassure consumers or producers in this country that their interests will be protected.
The Government will have the full support of Conservative Members whenever they act in Britain's interests, but as long as they continue to let down Britain's farmers and fail to protect British consumers, they will stand condemned not only by all those hon. Members who are concerned about the future of the countryside, but by all the British people.
Mr. Deputy Speaker:
Before I call the next speaker, I remind the House that Madam Speaker has placed a 10-minute time limit on all Back-Bench speeches in this debate, and that that applies from now on.
Mr. Russell Brown (Dumfries):
I am grateful for the opportunity to take part in this debate on an issue of great importance to my constituents. There is little doubt that most hon. Members, especially those who represent rural constituencies, are concerned about the difficulties facing the agriculture sector.
My constituency lies in the region of Dumfries and Galloway, where a third of the population lives in wholly rural areas, compared to some 10 per cent. of people in Scotland as a whole. That is reflected in a heavy reliance on agriculture, with an agriculture work force of more than 7,400, which is four times greater than the Scottish average. Subsidies to Dumfries and Galloway are four times higher than the Scottish average. About 25 per cent. of the part of the gross national product that comes from Dumfries and Galloway is produced by the agriculture sector.
Since 1981, however, there have been almost 1,500 agriculture job losses in the area. Not only have farmers in my constituency had their incomes fall by up to 75 per cent. in real terms over the past two years, but several sectors have been affected at the same time. As we well know, sheep farmers have, as a result of over-supply, seen the market price fall dramatically to as little as £1 per head. Dairy farmers continue to watch milk prices fall. The pig sector, as we have heard this afternoon, has declined by 12 per cent. over the past year, and there has been continued downward pressure on prices as other European Union herds expand. The beef industry still suffers prices that are 20 per cent. below pre-BSE levels.
When the agriculture industry faces difficulties, so does the wider rural community. There is an impact on the oft-forgotten low-paid agriculture workers, local shopkeepers in our villages, small firms who supply our farms, agriculture engineers, auction markets and vets. We need to be clear that the causes and, therefore, the solutions, are more complex than some Conservative Members might try to make out.
"I have on my desk draft letters waiting to go out to the major public authorities . . . urging them to source products of the highest welfare and animal hygiene standards".
I asked the Minister last week how many letters he had sent and how many replies he had received. I hope that that information will not be too difficult to come by: if the letters were ready to send on 1 July, some replies must have been received by now. I hope that the struggling pig farmers who are keen to be reassured that the Minister is doing all that he can will hear now that those letters have been sent.
"I have on my desk draft letters waiting to go out".--[Official Report 1 July 1999; Vol. 334, c. 422.]
I reminded the Minister of that response last week. We asked him whether any letters had been sent, and his reply was evasive. I assume that the letters were not sent until he was prompted to do so by the Opposition. He delayed for almost four months after giving that assurance at Question Time.
3.23 pm
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