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investment in the countryside as well as providing support for British produce. So, Mr Gove argued, public access was a public good. Finally, there was what Mr Gove called ‘rural resilience’. There


were numerous smaller farms and rural businesses which helped ‘keep communities coherent and ensure the culture in agriculture is kept healthy’. Whether its upland farmers in Wales or Cumbria, crofters in Scotland or small livestock farmers in Northern Ireland, we need to ensure support is there for those who keep rural life vital. In particular, Mr Gove cited the work of the Prince’s Countryside Fund which, he said, had been ‘invaluable’ and the kind of enterprises that it supported were, he contended, worthy of public support. Which takes us to the importance of what Mr Gove called ‘natural


capital’. Most people would agree, opined Mr Gove that, in thinking of the British countryside, and of rural life overall, is that its overall worth goes far beyond its economic value alone. Like his audience, he was moved by the beauty of the natural


landscapes, felt a sense of awe and wonder at the richness and abundance of creation, valued wildlife as a good in its own right, admired those who worked with nature and on the land, respected the skill and passion of farmers, growers, shepherds, stockmen, vets and agronomists who provide the UK with safe, high quality food and drink.


Mr Gove stated ‘I want to see them prosper’. He said that his


feelings were shared across the country. But transmuting these values into public policy could, sometimes, be difficult. This was why the natural capital approach could be so valuable. It allows us to ‘bed into policy-making a direct appreciation of the importance of field and forest, river and wetland, healthy soil and air free from pollution’. Mr Gove, saying that it was just one tool among many in the formation of policy but a very powerful one, in that it ensured that ‘we think of our responsibility to future generations to hand on a country, and a planet, in a better state than we found it’. Mr Gove ended his address by repeating that this had to be the aim for all the UK’s policies on food, farming, the landscape and the broader environment. ‘We have to embrace change which secures a more sustainable future for those who will inherit what we have built’. What should be the reaction of the feed industry to Mr Gove’s


address? It was short on detail and long on general expressions regarding


the future of the countryside rather than creating the economic conditions that would underwrite a prosperous agriculture sector. What, indeed, did he see as the future of agriculture in the UK? As a producer of primary food products or as a bit player in an overall countrywide strategy? Certainly, he made no reference to the parlous state of the agricultural sector’s finances if payments under the Basic Payments Scheme are removed from Farm Business Incomes. The extended transition period following Brexit that Mr Gove envisaged, is welcome in that it would provide space for farmers and their suppliers to consider their longer-term options. The disappearance of the Basic Payments Scheme was predictable in that its flaws were manifest to a much wider constituency than that directly linked to the agricultural


PAGE 14 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2018 FEED COMPOUNDER


sector but it is clear that a much more exacting examination of its role in supporting agricultural production in the UK and, indeed, of the merits of providing that support is required. It is to be hoped that the White Paper, due in the Spring or early Summer, will cast more light upon the evolution of government thinking in this area. In other parts of his speech, Mr Gove spoke about restoring


woodland and returning other agriculture land to wetlands and reviving meadowland, although he didn’t acknowledge that this would rely on a style of management that would reduce productivity. He might mean producing nutritious, wholesome food in a sustainable way, although Mr Gove did not say that was what he meant when he announced a ‘national food policy’. Nor did he say whether or not he anticipated that his plans would lead to food becoming more expensive. There were other problems that Mr Gove did not address.


Farming in the UK is already in decline with farm incomes falling and food self-sufficiency shrinking. Ending basic payments to the thousands of small farmers who shape the rural landscape in parts of England and Scotland, and much of Wales and Northern Ireland, will be what one commentator described as ‘a hard blow’. It was, however, implied in much of Mr Gove’s remarks that


nothing would happen in a hurry, certainly not the changes to subsidy payments. One commentator observed that ‘perhaps the man who steamrollered his way through the Department for Education and wanted to upend prisons policy at the Ministry of Justice has realised the advantage of making haste slowly.’ Or, as the same commentator speculated, ‘perhaps he has been persuaded to see that not all farmers are the enemy’. In the meantime, the feed industry and its representatives will be


engaged in putting their case for post-Brexit Britain, the formulation of which will be the industry’s major preoccupation in 2018.


SUPPLY AND DEMAND UPDATES This column uses two principal sources to review prospects for the supply and demand for the major feed materials used by livestock feed manufacturers, firstly, the United States Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agriculture Service, specifically its Production, Supply and Distribution (PSD) data base and secondly, the Grain Market Report, published by the International Grains Council. The United States Department of Agriculture has recently, in


December, updated its PSD projections for world wheat, maize and soybeans during the 2017-18 run. Very soon, probably in May, it will start to look at prospects for 2018-19. According to its latest projection, the world’s total production of


wheat during the 2017-18 harvest year, at 755.2 million tonnes, has been increased by 3.2 million tonnes compared to USDA’s November estimate. This constitutes a new world record total. The major changes in USDA’s December estimate compared to


the previous month include an additional 3 million tonnes for Canada. USDA estimates Canadian wheat production for 2017-18 at 30 million tonnes, up 11 per cent from last month’s projection but down 5 per cent from last year’s forecast. The area planted to wheat is estimated


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