In retrospect, we should not have wasted that lettuce on Liz Truss. The hapless vegetable, which is monitored by webcam to see if it will outlast the condemned prime minister, can feed one of the shoppers who are now looking at the empty shelves, like a supermarket ration salad.
Metropolitan society rarely thinks about agriculture. But the shortage of tomatoes and cucumbers is a reminder of the daily battle farmers wage to coax life from the soil. Energy and fertilizer costs have hurt domestic farmers, and the latest shortages are clear evidence that Brexit has left Britain at the back of the queue for Mediterranean vegetables.
“You can not depend on others to feed you,” I told Minette Batters, President of the National Farmers’ Union, whose conference this week farmers booed the minister. Greenhouses where tomatoes can be grown have been thrown away, he said, because farmers don’t get intensive energy support. Partly as a result, domestic salad ingredient production this year is expected to fall to the lowest level since records began in 1985.
In the environment, it is better to eat and eat what is in season: apples, cabbage, onions. But until the Brits enjoy eating sprouts and parsnips every day, not just at Christmas, it is probably best to increase the amount of locally grown food, instead of importing from further and further afield. But when farmers pull out of the production of even eggs and milk – UK egg production in 9 years less – something has gone very wrong.
Food is the UK’s largest manufacturing sector. But a parliamentary committee has warned that it faces “permanent shrinkage” if the acute labor shortages we saw last year continue. Crops were left to rot without pickers, and farmers had to kill their own pigs due to a lack of butchery labor – leaving some in dire straits. Someone told me that Romanian butchers who wanted to help were prevented from coming to the UK by language requirements. “I don’t think pigs speak English” he said wryly.
Six and a half years since the EU referendum, there is still uncertainty about whether farm subsidies will be available, and whether visas will be available. This created anxiety is one of the reasons why more than a third of farmers now have mental health problems, according to a new survey. The government is constantly confused about changing the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), so farmers cannot plan or invest. The EU’s basic payment scheme, based on land area, is being scaled back rapidly, while the UK’s pivot to paying farmers to protect nature has been criticized as complex and prescriptive.
Meanwhile, the government is increasing pressure by signing a free trade agreement that eliminates tariffs on cheap food imports with lower production standards. Farmers, who stand to lose out on deals with Australia and New Zealand on wine, beef and lamb, were further shocked by this week’s announcement that the upcoming UK-Mexico trade deal will include beef. Many are desperate.
It’s no wonder governments don’t like cheap food, especially during a cost-of-living crisis. But their own goals for domestic food production will decline as the Covid supply chain problem and the war in Ukraine underscore the importance of food security. Farmers cannot continue to sell for less than the cost they will incur.
The issue rarely comes up in urban conversation. Agriculture is treated with the same disdain applied to religion. Hipsters who care about food miles and animal welfare, and question the labeling of ingredients for additives, are quite likely to shrug at the plight of farmers, citing support for Brexit. In fact, the analysis suggests that around 53 per cent of farmers probably voted to leave, against the national average of 52 per cent, with the National Farmers’ Union campaigning for Remain. The farmer’s idea for Brexit may be an urban myth. And in any case, we didn’t stop caring about the motor industry because some Sunderland car workers voted to Leave.
It is not only the rest who shrug over the fate of our farmers; Brexiters too. They resented the rewards French agriculture reaped from the bloated CAP, but never understood what to do with the naturally subsidized – and heavily regulated – industry. Historically, it was assumed that the Conservatives had an affinity with the land. But rural knowledge seems to have diminished. For example, tenant farmers manage about a third of all farmland in England, sometimes on very short leases. But the government has still not responded to a review it commissioned a year ago, which argued for greater protection because tenant farmers were “particularly vulnerable to policy changes introduced by the government”.
Given all this, it is not surprising that the Conservatives are losing the rural vote. By-elections in North Shropshire and Tiverton and Honiton were warning signs, with both seats swinging to the Liberal Democrats. Since then, the ministers have done nothing to convince them. When the NFU delegation clashed with environment secretary Thérèse Coffey, Sir Keir Starmer (polite) was praised. Claiming that farming is in our “DNA”, the Labor leader said it was food security and promised that if Labor wins, half of all food bought by the public sector will be local. A clear bid for the farm vote must have seemed audacious; it is now eminently sensible. In a temperate climate suitable for agriculture, environmental policies and food security must go hand in hand. But we need a government that actually cares.
camilla.cavendish@ft.com