Farmers demand a fair deal (From Oxford Mail)

Farmers demand a fair deal

6:26pm Wednesday 12th August 2009 in News By Emily Allen

OXFORDSHIRE farmers have backed calls for a “radical rethink” of the way the country produces and consumes food to guarantee the nation’s food supply but say the Government must do more to help them.

Environment Secretary Hilary Benn issued the warnings as the Government outlined threats to food security in a report.

Mr Benn, who said food supply was currently secure, called on British farmers to produce as much food as possible.

However, he said they must take into account climate change and the need to tackle global warming emissions.

Farmers across Oxfordshire welcomed the news but called for more support from the Government to help boost British agriculture.

David Orpwood, who farms at Watlington, said: “It’s about time food security was taken into consideration.

“Farmers just need more support from the Government now.

“It doesn’t matter what job you do, you have to eat and that’s got to be the first importance.”

Justin Riggs, from Stanford in the Vale, near Wantage, said: “There are a lot of ways we can increase food production.

“There’s no help for young farmers and no incentive to get involved with farming, for a start. The nearest abattoir is about 100 miles away now, so we have huge costs to get animals to slaughter.

“We should also be discouraging people from giving up good farmland to other uses and to rely too much on imports.

“This Government has ignored agriculture for the past 10 years.

“We’re a very important part of the survival of this country.”

The Government estimates food production will have to rise globally by 70 per cent by 2050 in order to feed about 9bn people.

Climate change, animal diseases, a growing population eating more and water shortages were among the threats to food supplies listed in its assessment.

Peter Vacher, from North Moreton, near Didcot, said that if people ignored the best-before dates – as was suggested by Mr Benn – there would be less food wasted.

He said: “It wasn’t long ago that we had to decide ourselves when something was off.”

Sandra Nichols, of the National Farmers Union, welcomed the report and said genetically modified crops could be the key to producing larger quantities of food.

Mr Benn said: “We need a radical rethink of how we produce and consume our food.”

eallen@oxfordmail.co.uk