Agriculture Bill

Written evidence submitted by the Crop Protection Association (CPA) (AB46)

We welcome the opportunity to provide evidence to the Public Bill Committee on the Agriculture Bill. The CPA is the voice of the UK plant science industry, promoting the essential role of science and innovation in protecting food, parks, gardens roads and railways. Our members develop and manufacture innovative products and agricultural technologies that help farmers grow healthy crops, protecting our food supply against the pests, weeds and diseases that would otherwise cause us to lose between 30-40% of our food. Advocating good stewardship, better regulation and best practice, our 23 member companies represent 96% of the UK market.

Plant protection products are a fundamental part of modern food production and the agricultural economy in the UK. They are especially important if we are to meet the challenge of feeding a global population set to reach 9.5 billion by 2050. Our crops must compete with around 30,000 species of weeds, 10,000 species of insect pests and countless diseases. Modern technology, not just traditional pesticides, but also biopesticides and biotechnology will be crucial in meeting demand for safe, affordable food. Our members support the careful management, use and regulation of pesticides, to avoid unacceptable risk to humans, animals and the environment.

Executive Summary

 

· There is a clear challenge to produce safe, affordable food whilst minimising the impact on the environment, making the most of limited land and resources and responding to the threat of climate change. The UK’s departure from the EU offers the UK a unique opportunity to meet this challenge and lead the way in agricultural science, technology and innovation. The Agriculture Bill is an important first step to realising this vision, promoting modern, productive and sustainable farming in the UK, and ensuring the supply of safe, affordable and nutritious food.

· We welcome the ‘public money for public goods’ approach adopted in the Bill, and the emphasis on improving agricultural productivity whilst protecting and enhancing the environment. To meet these objectives, it’s essential that farmers are able to make the best possible use of land currently under cultivation and have access to a range of tools including crop protection products. Indeed, high-yield farming has been shown to support greater biodiversity and improve carbon sequestration.

· We also welcome the Bill’s requirement for a UK Food Security report to be published at least once every five years, which will include a requirement to consider household expenditure on food. A report commissioned by the CPA and written by the independent economist Séan Rickard highlighted the role of agricultural science and innovation in producing safe, affordable and nutritious food. It found that the average weekly grocery bill for a family of four would rise by more than 15 pounds per week – £786 per year – without plant protection products. This would disproportionately impact lower income households, with the largest increases in prices being for fresh fruit and vegetables, which could rise by around 40%.

· The CPA supports the provisions in the Bill enabling government to help farmers invest in equipment, technology and infrastructure, as well as support R&D projects that facilitate more efficient, sustainable food production.

· Through the Agriculture Bill, the UK can create a regulatory environment that encourages innovation. This will unlock R&D spending, enable farmers to benefit from proven technologies used elsewhere in the world, and will support the development of farms that grow even more food with a lower environmental impact.

Protecting the environment and decarbonising agriculture

The CPA welcomes the ‘public money for public goods’ approach adopted in the Bill and its emphasis on improving agricultural productivity. The managed transition from the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) regulations to Environmental Land Management contracts represents an innovative approach to food production. Rewarding farmers for managing land and water in a way that protects or improves the environment and mitigating the impact of climate change will enable the sector to deliver the public goods set out in the Government’s 25 Year Environment Plan and the Clean Growth Strategy. It will also support agriculture’s role in meeting the 2050 zero-net emissions target.

In order to effectively reduce agriculture’s environmental footprint, food production systems must make the best possible use of land currently under cultivation. Our crops have to compete with around 30,000 species of weeds, 10,000 species of insect pests and countless diseases. Ensuring farmers have access to a range of tools including digital solutions, new breeding techniques and plant protection products will enable them to maximise the productivity of existing farmland, resulting in more land being spared for biodiversity and carbon sequestration.

CPA members work extensively to promote best practice in pesticide use through farmer training and education, promotion of integrated pest management (IPM) and through collaborative stewardship programmes to protect water quality and enhance farmland biodiversity, such as the Voluntary Initiative and Championing the Farmed Environment. Our members support the careful management, use and regulation of pesticides, to avoid unacceptable risk to humans, animals and the environment.

Research has shown that low-yielding farming systems, such as organic, have a larger climate impact than high-yielding systems such as conventional farming, with the greater areas of land required resulting in greater deforestation and significantly higher indirect carbon dioxide emissions. [1] Furthermore, researchers from Cambridge University recently found that high-yielding farming delivered better outcomes for biodiversity, compared to low yielding systems. [2]

The CPA supports the Government’s ambition in the Agriculture Bill to protect and enhance the environment whilst supporting productive agriculture in the UK. Moving forward, we call upon the Government to further support the role that agricultural science and innovation must play in achieving these goals.

Food security

The CPA welcomes the addition of a requirement for Ministers to produce a UK Food Security report at least once every five years in this version of the Agriculture Bill. Farmers are under increasing pressure to sustainably produce increasing quantities of nutritious food whilst simultaneously mitigating the growing impact of climate change, pests and diseases. The CPA commends the Government’s commitment to evaluating global food availability, the supply sources for food and the resilience of the supply chain for food. In particular, we welcome the Bill’s inclusion of considering household expenditure on food.

The CPA recently commissioned a report, written by the former Chief Economist for the National Farmers Union Séan Rickard, which found that the average weekly grocery bill for a family of four would rise by more than 15 pounds per week – £786 per year – without plant protection products. The report suggests that eating healthily could become unaffordable for some families if farmers do not have access to every tool in the box to protect crops. [3]

Poorer households with children spend a much higher proportion of their weekly expenditure on food. Households in the lowest quintile spend £63.70 per week on food and non-alcoholic drinks consumed in the home which amounts to 16.8 per cent of £379 total weekly expenditure. If food expenditure for households in this poorest group rose by 18.5 per cent, they would have to find another £11.70 per week and the share of expenditure devoted to food and non-alcoholic drinks for home consumption would rise to 19.8 per cent. Over the course of a year these poorer households would need to find an extra £612 – a severe challenge for already hard-pressed households.

Without plant protection products, some of the largest increases in prices would be for fresh fruit and vegetables. It is estimated that prices for these categories of food would increase by around 40%. An increase of this size would negatively impact on the Government’s target for people to consumer at least five portions of fruit and vegetables each day. This may also impact upon health outcomes, particularly for vulnerable households and pose a higher burden for the National Health Service.

Plant protection products are a fundamental part of modern food production and the agricultural economy in the UK. As the population continues to increase, modern technology, not just traditional pesticides, but also biopesticides and biotechnology will be crucial in meeting demand for safe, affordable food.

Science and innovation

The CPA welcomes the Agriculture Bill’s commitment to investing in new technology and research to ensure UK food producers remain competitive and innovative. In particular, we welcome the fact that the Government will be able to make payments during the seven-year transition period for farmers to invest in new technologies and methods that boost productivity.

Having left the European Union, the UK now has a unique opportunity to re-join the mainstream of global agricultural innovation and adopt a proportionate, science-based regulatory approach, which supports innovation and farmers whilst still ensuring the highest food and environmental standards. Doing so would capitalise on the UK’s strong science base in areas such as agri-tech, enabling UK farmers to become more competitive on the global stage, whilst also attracting inward investment to the UK.

Soil quality

We also welcome the proposal to link payments to farmers protecting and improving soil quality. Crop protection products have a key role to play in supporting soil structure and quality through a no-till or min-till farming system which uses herbicides such as glyphosate rather than the plough to control a broad spectrum of weeds. This protects soils from degradation and reduces greenhouse emissions and energy consumption.

February 2020