I think we were lucky yesterday. Soon after I helped the Farming Minister, Jim Paice MP, launch the first report from the Green Food Project, the rain came down at the Great Yorkshire Show. In fact, it was so bad that the remainder of the Show has now been cancelled. A first in its 154 year history. Please don't blame the Minister (or me) for this one. It really is a terrible shame for both exhibitors and visitors. What a horrible summer we're having.
But amid the murk and gloom, I was pleased that our report did receive a relatively favourable reaction. While the idea of a home-grown curry grabbed many of the headlines (see here and here), the report did trigger wider debate, Most noticeably, Leo Hickman from the Guardian, ran one of his all-day online discussions. He ended with this verdict:
"This report feels like the start of a long overdue journey. As others have already noted, it lacks detail on solutions, speaking only in generalities. But that misses its point, I think. What the report shows is that opposing forces within this sometimes fraught debate – a debate further muddied by the inclusion of a wide range of vested interests - can come together and try to forge a way forward. I certainly await the next step with anticipation.
But what I find particularly encouraging is seeing issues such as climate change, population growth and biodiversity now being uttered by all participants alongside terms such as profitability, yield and intensification.
I'm pleased, too, to see an emphasis placed on consumer choices and waste reduction rather than just an effort to highlight the need to eke out ever more productivity from every hectare of available land. The choices we each make as consumers of food – reduced meat intake, for example – and our societal attitude to food waste are just as crucial as the decisions taken by farmers and the wider food industry. We just need some savvy, determined politicians to guide (and, yes, regulate, where necessary) all of us much further down this path. Here's hoping."
I think this is fair and is similar to how I'm feeling about the project. We'll stick with it though. All the 'vested interests' are sitting around the table with the minister and the report provides us with an agreed reference point. We'll now need to deliver on the recommendations.
Whatever your doing this week, I hope that the rain is not ruining your plans. And perhaps if you do have plans, it's probably best not to invite me (or the Minister) to come and visit...
Leo Hickman is great ! the great challenge of course is that across Europe we see the abandonment of the old low intensity farming systems that rendered such a wealth of wildlife as well as intimate relationship with the land for its people. We have to try and hold the hands of the clock here ; there is a resurgence....and as energy becomes more expensive people will have to live nearer to the land or many of them....I think and hope .
Peter Plover