Memorandum submitted by Tony Keene (RAS
15)
BACKGROUND AND
EXPERIENCE
1. Tony Keene is a first generation farmer
and the son of a businessman. He started farming in the 60s after
doing National Service and a formal agricultural education. During
his farming lifetime he has been involved in setting up a plant
near Grantham to freeze peas and produce chips, now owned by McCains.
He also had a business in Nottingham retailing potatoes direct
to the housewife operating 11 vans. He developed a business in
which he erected specialist potato stores to store 11,000 tonnes
of potatoes for Walkers Crisps. He has been Chairman of a Farmers'
Cooperative, a director of United Oilseeds Ltd, a member of the
BBC Agricultural and Environmental Advisory Committee. He also
served as a Governor of the Royal Agricultural College and was
Chairman of the Farms Board and a past Chairman of the Oxford
Farming Conference.
2. From a farm of 340 acres he increased
the size of the business up to an acreage of 4,500. The acreage
has since been trimmed back to 2,800 in order to consolidate the
finances of the business to ensure that the business can endure
these tough times. He has now handed over control of the business
to his two daughters who have executive powers to run the businesses,
which are situated in Leicestershire and Norfolk. He now has the
luxury of being able to work when he wants to—which is quite
a lot of the time.
THE COMMON
AGRICULTURAL POLICY
3. The CAP by and large has served Europe
well over the years but has now become outdated. We now live in
a world of globalisation, which involves agriculture just as much
as financial services, and the manufacture of industrial goods.
We therefore have to change. The economics set the trend, which
generally has to be followed. If the British farmer cannot compete
financially he has no future. He only has a chance of competing
on a world market if:
(a) His competitors, either in Europe or
in the United States or anywhere else for that matter is not given
financial advantages.
(b) If there were no support paid to British
Farmers today the majority of the industry would be bust. Our
farming at present only generates sufficient income to pay our
actual rents or where we are owner occupiers a notional rent.
(c) If support is withdrawn in 2012 here
and around the world, the assumption must be that commodity prices
would rise to cover the cost of production and to generate some
sort of return on capital employed; or the costs of production
would drop or a combination of both. Hence the importance that
world agriculture is uniformly treated.
(d) If farming is unprofitable production
will decline until such time as prices rise to a level that enables
farming to be profitable.
(e) As the standard of living around the
world increases, so will the labour cost of producing food and
if energy costs remain high, this will also affect the costs of
moving food around the world hence giving an advantage to home
produced food.
4. Politicians now have to decide:
(f) If farming were unprofitable what impact
would this have on the environment and the countryside? Could
agri-environmental schemes protect this environment and at the
same time give farmers another source of income?
(g) Is the security of food supply an issue?
(h) To what extent can agriculture lessen
the problem of global warming and can it contribute and help to
lessen the dependence on oil and gas from unstable areas of the
world?
5. However the over riding question is:
Can British Agriculture survive without any outside support?
6. There is no doubt that if support were
suddenly withdrawn there would be a mass shake out within the
industry. Production of the commodities that have hitherto been
supported would drop, rents would drop, the number employed in
agriculture would drop and there would be an abrupt move to extensive
low cost farming.
7. There is, however, a degree of attraction
in letting economics decide the future of British Agriculture,
but it seems to me that it is most unlikely that the French would
adopt the same approach, as their farmers would not accept it
and simply take to the roads and bring the country to a stand
still. So how does the British Farmer compete with no subsidies
when across the Channel the French and maybe the German farmers
receive preferential treatment? The answer is simple. They will
not be able to. Therefore Europe has to move together, unless
British Governments are prepared to sacrifice the British Agricultural
Industry.
June 2006
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