Farming Conference Advocates Innovation & Change To Meet Global Demand For Food
The long haul out of the deepest recession since the 1930s, and the need for professional development and innovation in agriculture to secure the future, were two of the topics covered by speakers at the recent South of England Agricultural Societys Autumn Conference entitled The Futures in our Hands.
The Societys delegates from farming communities across the south welcomed the conferences main speakers: Trevor Williams, an eminent economist with co-sponsors Lloyds TSB Bank Plc, and David Leaver, Professor Emeritus of the Royal Agricultural College, who is also an influential member of the Governments Council of Food Policy Advisors.
Both men shared advice and information with a packed audience at the South of England Centres Norfolk Pavilion in Ardingly after being welcomed initially by the Societys Chairman Brian Williams.
In his opening speech the Chairman thanked whole-heartedly Lloyds TSB and the Sussex-based solicitors MayoWynneBaxter as co-sponsors, whose magnificent support, he said, was so greatly appreciated in difficult economic times.
Trevor Williams, the chief economist at Lloyds TSB responsible for the banks economic research, corporate markets, is also a member of the elite Institute for Economic Affairs Shadow Monetary Policy Committee, and he attempted to throw clearer light on the state of the economy, the prospects of an impending recovery and the hopes and concerns for the future.
He said only the massive, coordinated global policy response to the financial crises of the last year had prevented the very deep recession becoming an even deeper depression and that those countries in the best positions to benefit most from a recovery were the ones with emerging market economies and large populations hungry for development and better, healthier food.
In the UK, recovery was likely to be affected by, among other factors, the need for people to pay off the massive personal debt that had stimulated the growth of the previous decade, their need to save, and a continuing growth in unemployment.
He said: This is a period of great uncertainty. People dont know exactly what will happen next so they are being extremely cautious.
In his opinion it would not be until 2012 Britains Olympic year when growth in the economy picked up substantially.
Globally, sustainable growth depended on economic imbalances being resolved with the US/UK relying less on consumption and Asia saving less and consuming more.
In the medium term, the withdrawal of policy stimulus would pose a substantial risk while a failure to manage an orderly exit strategy could precipitate a sharp fall in sterling, a rise in inflation and a surge in long-term interest rates.
Professor Leaver said the future for agriculture in the UK presented many challenges not least the need to contribute to a doubling in the global requirement for food to feed a world population that was predicted to grow to nine billion over the next 50 years.
Among the difficulties of this scenario were the shrinking land availability caused by urbanisation and a switch to bio fuel production, and the requirements to protect the planet by using less resources, including chemicals.
Professor Leaver said his faith in the ingenuity of the human race led him to believe that the global demand for food could still be met under these imposing circumstances, with increased production a critical factor and the use of GM, which was growing around the world by 10 per cent a year, an undeniable component.
Professor Leaver said the UKs population was predicted to grow from 61 million to 75 million over the next 40 to 50 years. Currently, 60 percent of our food production was produced here and it was absolutely essential that it increased.
The message from the Government, too, was that we should be producing more food in this country in the future. To do that the agricultural industry had to be competitive and yet over recent years its competitiveness and its self-sufficiency in production of fruit, vegetables and animal products had been declining.
Professor Leaver said money needed to be found to spend on research while what was needed above all was leadership.
He said: No industry can survive if it cannot innovate and change and I dont think the farming industry is any different.
He also criticised the highly publicised views of healthy eating, that included eating less meat and less dairy, as over-simplifying the science behind the issues involved. Furthermore, he said the damage caused by greenhouse gases produced by agriculture were incorrectly perceived as these were actually declining year on year, not increasing.
In summary, he said it was clear that future agricultural production in this country could only increase in importance in future years.
He said: It is up to the industry itself to make sure we have a viable and economic industry.
What we need is an innovative, highly skilled industry but above all, one that is confident and we have shown a distinct lack of confidence in ourselves in recent years.
Finally, Professor Leaver called for an end to in-fighting between different fractions in agriculture.
He said: I will end by quoting H.G.Wells: The future is a race between education and catastrophy and which way we go depends on ourselves and is the title of the conference tonight: The Futures in our Hands.
Ending the evening, Conference Chairman Brian Gilbert, agricultural banking manager for Lloyds TSB, said there was no doubt that there was much real ingenuity amongst the farming community demonstrated by the winners of prestigious prizes that had been presented at the start of the conference.
These included Guy Hardy, his son Mark and Marks wife, Sarah, owners of High Weald Dairy in Horsted Keynes. The family recently had its Saint Giles cheese, which it makes from organic cows milk, named Best English Cheese and Best British Cheese at the 2009 World Cheese Awards in Gran Canaria. St Giles was also placed fifth out of nearly 2,500 cheeses from all over the world.
The Hardys were presented with their certificates by Brian Williams as they were in Sardinia on a skills exchange week funded by the South of England Agricultural Society when the world championships took place.
Also at the start of the conference, David Leaver presented awards to three finalists in the British Institute of Agricultural Consultants awards.
They were:
– The winner: Rick Sanderson, a promoter of local food chains who impressed the judges with his energy and enthusiasm;
– Runner- up: Saad Gilani, a researcher in nutrition in dairy cattle;
– Finalist: Jason McMinn, who works with dairy producers in Northern Ireland.