I am delighted to be here today to celebrate the Royal Agricultural Society's 150th Show.
And there is so much for us to celebrate in this British Food and Farming Year—not just the efficiency and excellence of our agriculture and food industries but also the way in which those industries are responding to the challenges of our [end p1] changing world and of the environment.
These achievements are vividly brought to life here, where we are surrounded by the very best these industries have to offer.
It is a superb demonstration. The Royal Agricultural Society and our agriculture and food industries can be rightly proud. [end p2] The Society has come a very long way since its first “country meeting” at Oxford in 1839 and the immense contribution it has made in those 150 years can be very clearly seen here at Stoneleigh. No wonder the Show attracts nearly a quarter of a million visitors each year—and about a tenth of these from overseas.
I would particularly like to welcome here [end p3] today our European colleagues—the European Commissioner for Agriculture, Mr. McSharry, and the Ministers for Agriculture from the Netherlands, Mr. Braks, Italy, Signor Mannino, and Belgium, Mr. Dekeersmaeker, as well as the many other Ministers from across the world whom I know are here today.
Looking at the displays here at the Royal Show, [end p4] it is easy to understand why British exports of food, feed and drink have almost doubled since 1979. And it is easy to appreciate the fact that productivity has increased by over 50 per cent in the agricultural industry, and why almost 40 per cent in the food and drink industry in the same period. [end p5]
All of us have benefited. The diversity of high quality products from these industries offers better value than ever to the British consumer.
Farmers and manufacturers have clearly understood the benefits of the enterprise economy we are creating, and have sought those benefits for themselves and for their industry. [end p6]
They have understood that there is no proper substitute for real markets, and that there can be no lasting satisfaction in producing for the intervention store.
Farmers can take heart, along with consumers and taxpayers, that the food mountains are now little more than molehills. [end p7]
They can be relieved that the spiralling cost of the Common Agricultural Policy, which jeopardized the very basis of their livelihood, has been firmly checked by the comprehensive measures agreed by Heads of Government in February 1988.
We have brought budgetary control and a considerable measure of reform to the CAP, and the benefits are already apparent. [end p8] Surpluses have been reduced. The once soaring costs of support which threatened to destroy the CAP have been contained.
The last two price settlements have consolidated the reforms.
Of course there is further to go. But we are pressing on. [end p9]
At home, farmers are increasingly alert to grasp every business opportunity. For some, that means looking beyond the production of primary products. It means responding to the changing needs of the rural economy and environment. And it means giving the 18 million people who regularly visit the countryside the things to buy, and the facilities to [end p10] enjoy, which they seek.
With less pressure to squeeze ever higher output from the land, there are now great opportunities for farming in ways that meet many objectives, instead of just one.
I know that farmers and their families have the flair and imagination needed to meet this challenge. [end p11] The Government is helping. We recognise that farming for the wider public interest merits a public financial contribution.
That wider public interest is growing all the time. The future of the countryside is being discussed as never before. Sometimes the debate is presented as a [end p12] conflict between those who want to develop the countryside, including farmers, and those who want to prevent change.
The answer is that there need not be conflict, though creative friction will stimulate careful development. And those who think that the countryside is, or should be, an unchanging place do [end p13] not know their history. Our present landscape reflects economic development in the past. [end p14]
Over the last few years we have led the way in promoting activities which are good for business and are at the same time very much in the interests of the countryside as a whole. Many of these measures now form part of EC as well as UK policy. [end p15]
We have established nineteen Environmentally Sensitive Areas, covering two million acres. Carefully focussed Government help allows farmers to combine economic viability with the preservation of the traditional landscape.
We have introduced the Farm Woodland Scheme to encourage the planting of trees, especially broadleaved varieties. [end p16] We need trees for beauty, timber and for their vital role as consumers of carbon dioxide. Man has always planted trees for the first two reasons. Now our growing understanding of what is happening to the earth's atmosphere makes the third reason vitally important. The following two sentences may have been omitted
Recently we have introduced the Countryside [end p17] Premium Scheme in East Anglia. This will provide further incentives to encourage farmers to use set-aside land for nature conservation, landscape improvement and increased public access.
These initiatives recognise that farmers are not just producers of our food. They play a key role in shaping the countryside which we all cherish. [end p18] It is therefore right that the Royal Show should feature exhibits about conservation as well as production—I am looking forward very much to seeing the conservation centre here when I go round the Show. I understand it features, amongst other ‘live’ exhibits, hedgerows — which are wonderful places for wildlife — and of course we are now paying farmers [end p19] to plant hedges on their farms. Throughout the UK, farmers are not only planting more trees and adding to the beauty of the landscape. They are adding more value to their primary products; using their redundant buildings and other facilities to provide local employment and leisure opportunities—through for example—nurseries and day centres, [end p20] nature trails, livery shows, clay pigeon shooting, small workshops.
This diversified approach not only makes sense to farmers. It adds to the quality of all our lives and to a healthy rural economy—which the countryside itself must have to live and thrive.
As the CAP is reformed to allow market forces a [end p21] greater role in agriculture, it is British farmers who are best placed to compete. We have so many advantages: a temperate climate and larger farms than many of our competitors; enterepreneurial business attitudes and a host of opportunities to meet the growing and diverse demands of the non-farm population. Further afield are the wider markets of [end p22] Europe and the World. All these offer challenges which can be turned to profit.
But, while many are looking ahead with enthusiasm and confidence, there are those who find the rapid changes which are taking place perplexing and daunting.
I understand that this is not any easy time for [end p23] many farmers. Change is never painless. But it is less hard if it is understood, anticipated and properly managed.
There is no soft option. The challenges have to be faced. The evidence of other industries as well as farming is that, if they are faced squarely, and the transition made from [end p24] dependency on support to enterprise, the rewards are great. The long term prosperity of the agriculture industry will be secured, its ability to compete enhanced.
The food industry today is a highly sophisticated, high technology business. Competition is fierce and will become more so after 1992. [end p25] Consumer demand constantly changes. Busy people now want more convenience foods, more ready-prepared meals. They expect consistent, safe products, seven days a week, fifty-two weeks a year. And the food industry has responded magnificently to these marketing opportunities. It has produced an immense range of high quality, attractive products. [end p26] They add greatly to the quality of all our lives.
Increasingly, the challenge for British farmers is to identify and meet the demands of this ever more sophisticated market.
At the same time, consumers increasingly demand high and consistent standards of food safety. [end p27]
The Government is determined to do all that it can to safeguard the nation's food supply. We make use of the very best scientific advice available. We have extensive research and food surveillance programmes.
To meet the challenges of developments in food technology, manufacture and distribution, [end p28] now and in the future, the Government is preparing new food legislation which we shall introduce in Parliament as soon as practicable. Its purpose will be to improve our powers to act in food emergencies; to enhance enforcement of the law on food safety; to control new foods and processes and to improve further hygiene in food premises, [end p29] for example by better training of people who handle food.
No one can tell what the future holds. As an industry, agriculture is still very much subject to influences outside our control. The climate, and unpredictable developments in agriculture in the major trading countries of the world, are [end p30] obvious examples.
The Government is helping with a policy framework which is flexible. Set aside land, for example, could readily be brought back into production, should that be necessary.
Within that flexible framework, the industry can strike the right balance between [end p31] farming for safe food; encouraging a thriving rural economy of diverse enterprise, and safeguarding the environment.
No one here today at this wonderful Show should doubt that our food and agriculture industries can deliver the goods that the market wants and that the British agriculture and food industries will [end p32] thrive and prosper in the 1990s and beyond.
It gives me great pleasure to declare the 1989 Show open.