- Location
- Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk
Dear Mr Gove
In response to your consultation on post Brexit agri-policy, and in the forlorn hope that this ‘consultation’ isn’t going to follow the recent practise of merely being a bit of lip service.
I’m writing as a lifelong working farmer. I’m also many other things, but I am a farmer first, and last.
Initially, might I suggest you review the way responses are to be appraised. Given that you’ve presented your consultation document at about the busiest period in the farming calendar, with a very short deadline, it is reasonable to anticipate that many responses from actual farmers will be absent. Meanwhile the nosey parkers, activists and idealist busybodies will doubtless find time.
Whether the massive ‘remapping’ fiasco your department have dumped on us again this year, swallowing days of precious time correcting your mistakes, was deliberately timed, along with various other absurdly complex time critical paperwork exercises, to coincide with this consultation remains a matter of conjecture.
That notwithstanding, I would hope you’ll place more weight on responses from people who have soil under their finger nails accordingly.
Then, there is the academic attainment of responders. A significant percentage of those who actually farm the land have scant further education - many of us were set straight to work in family businesses as teenagers. This doesn’t necessarily make us stupid. Conversely, some responses from elsewhere might very well come with the full weight of an impressive degree, and letters after names. Such accolades don’t in themselves necessarily reflect an innate understanding of food production and land management. I would hope that this phenomena is also factored into matters.
And so, onto the specifics of the matter.
I note that food production is barely mentioned in any of your documents, and the impression given is that you’re wanting the UK landscape to become some kind of parkland. You seem to have the impression that we, as a nation, can rely on food imported from wherever it is cheapest. And indeed, I note several countries are aligning themselves to ship us vast quantities of ‘cheap’ provender. I would beg to remind you that for all the control and constraints placed on how food is grown here, we have almost no control over what happens overseas. And the presumption that such sources will have any loyalty to the UK in a time of any kind of shortage is both wildly unrealistic, and reckless. Throughout history, a safe local supply of staple foods has been the cornerstone of every civilisation's long term security. Its absence soon leads to dramatic results. Ask what triggered the ‘Arab Spring’ if you want a recent example.
As to landscape. Almost everything in the rural British landscape we love, above actual geology, and below the post-modern layer of fastfood wrappers et al- which presumably will one day become geology themselves, in a thin layer of what we’ll be able to call ‘dumpite’- is the result of farming and other commerce driven land use. It’s a workplace, and not separate to the ‘environment’. An example? Near me -here on Dartmoor- is a tract of upland oak woodland hailed as a vestigial remnant of some mythical primal forest, unspoiled by human hand. What isn’t widely known beyond a handful of my fellow uneducated peasants is that-if you know what to look for- there are remains of charcoal pits every 100 paces or so. These likely date from some long ago tin smelting operation nearby, and are evidence that the iconic corner of ‘unspoiled’ landscape was once anything but.
It appears that you have some fantasist rewilder chums –one of whom, you’ve seen fit to parachute onto the board of DEFRA, although on what basis remains unclear. They wax lyrical about an untamed landscape which hasn’t existed for several thousand years, and is certainly pretty unrealistic given current lifestyle trends. The idea that your government can allow massive urban sprawl, and huge swathes of countryside to be concreted over for a uncontrollably expanding population…and then tell us we’re farming too much and damaging the environment is not only spectacularly ironic, but also about as professionally insulting as you can get.
As for ‘subsidies’, which exercise some people greatly, I would ask you to look carefully at what happens to them. Very little of that tax payer cash goes into numbered Swiss bank accounts. The vast majority of it goes straight into the wider community, recycled into the economy. As individuals, farmers tend to be hard workers, both innovative and resourceful, and we’ll certainly find ways to thrive without subsidies. The question is who else would be impacted?
Mind, we could very easily produce less food, and that could be what history remembers you for.
Good luck chap.
-------------------------
Anton's articles are syndicated exclusively by TFF by kind permission of the author and WMN.
Anton also writes regularly for the Dartmoor Magazine and the NFU
For those of you who don't know Anton, he farms on Dartmoor with his wife Alison and Son John.
Anton is the 5th to farm the Duchy of Cornwall Sherberton Farm and his family have farmed within 6-7 miles for over 500 years.
Anton also runs a mobile sawmill, hardwood timber business, granite quarry, sells beef and hides, breeding stock and Dartmoor ponies and has a holiday cottage at Sherberton Farm
He has published two books; the second "The Complete Bullocks" is still in print
http://www.anton-coaker.co.uk/book.htm
In response to your consultation on post Brexit agri-policy, and in the forlorn hope that this ‘consultation’ isn’t going to follow the recent practise of merely being a bit of lip service.
I’m writing as a lifelong working farmer. I’m also many other things, but I am a farmer first, and last.
Initially, might I suggest you review the way responses are to be appraised. Given that you’ve presented your consultation document at about the busiest period in the farming calendar, with a very short deadline, it is reasonable to anticipate that many responses from actual farmers will be absent. Meanwhile the nosey parkers, activists and idealist busybodies will doubtless find time.
Whether the massive ‘remapping’ fiasco your department have dumped on us again this year, swallowing days of precious time correcting your mistakes, was deliberately timed, along with various other absurdly complex time critical paperwork exercises, to coincide with this consultation remains a matter of conjecture.
That notwithstanding, I would hope you’ll place more weight on responses from people who have soil under their finger nails accordingly.
Then, there is the academic attainment of responders. A significant percentage of those who actually farm the land have scant further education - many of us were set straight to work in family businesses as teenagers. This doesn’t necessarily make us stupid. Conversely, some responses from elsewhere might very well come with the full weight of an impressive degree, and letters after names. Such accolades don’t in themselves necessarily reflect an innate understanding of food production and land management. I would hope that this phenomena is also factored into matters.
And so, onto the specifics of the matter.
I note that food production is barely mentioned in any of your documents, and the impression given is that you’re wanting the UK landscape to become some kind of parkland. You seem to have the impression that we, as a nation, can rely on food imported from wherever it is cheapest. And indeed, I note several countries are aligning themselves to ship us vast quantities of ‘cheap’ provender. I would beg to remind you that for all the control and constraints placed on how food is grown here, we have almost no control over what happens overseas. And the presumption that such sources will have any loyalty to the UK in a time of any kind of shortage is both wildly unrealistic, and reckless. Throughout history, a safe local supply of staple foods has been the cornerstone of every civilisation's long term security. Its absence soon leads to dramatic results. Ask what triggered the ‘Arab Spring’ if you want a recent example.
As to landscape. Almost everything in the rural British landscape we love, above actual geology, and below the post-modern layer of fastfood wrappers et al- which presumably will one day become geology themselves, in a thin layer of what we’ll be able to call ‘dumpite’- is the result of farming and other commerce driven land use. It’s a workplace, and not separate to the ‘environment’. An example? Near me -here on Dartmoor- is a tract of upland oak woodland hailed as a vestigial remnant of some mythical primal forest, unspoiled by human hand. What isn’t widely known beyond a handful of my fellow uneducated peasants is that-if you know what to look for- there are remains of charcoal pits every 100 paces or so. These likely date from some long ago tin smelting operation nearby, and are evidence that the iconic corner of ‘unspoiled’ landscape was once anything but.
It appears that you have some fantasist rewilder chums –one of whom, you’ve seen fit to parachute onto the board of DEFRA, although on what basis remains unclear. They wax lyrical about an untamed landscape which hasn’t existed for several thousand years, and is certainly pretty unrealistic given current lifestyle trends. The idea that your government can allow massive urban sprawl, and huge swathes of countryside to be concreted over for a uncontrollably expanding population…and then tell us we’re farming too much and damaging the environment is not only spectacularly ironic, but also about as professionally insulting as you can get.
As for ‘subsidies’, which exercise some people greatly, I would ask you to look carefully at what happens to them. Very little of that tax payer cash goes into numbered Swiss bank accounts. The vast majority of it goes straight into the wider community, recycled into the economy. As individuals, farmers tend to be hard workers, both innovative and resourceful, and we’ll certainly find ways to thrive without subsidies. The question is who else would be impacted?
Mind, we could very easily produce less food, and that could be what history remembers you for.
Good luck chap.
-------------------------
Anton's articles are syndicated exclusively by TFF by kind permission of the author and WMN.
Anton also writes regularly for the Dartmoor Magazine and the NFU
For those of you who don't know Anton, he farms on Dartmoor with his wife Alison and Son John.
Anton is the 5th to farm the Duchy of Cornwall Sherberton Farm and his family have farmed within 6-7 miles for over 500 years.
Anton also runs a mobile sawmill, hardwood timber business, granite quarry, sells beef and hides, breeding stock and Dartmoor ponies and has a holiday cottage at Sherberton Farm
He has published two books; the second "The Complete Bullocks" is still in print
http://www.anton-coaker.co.uk/book.htm
