As learning curves go, the one David Heath is on right now takes some beating. The badger cull pilots mean the coalition government’s new food and farming minister will get accustomed to the spotlight rather swiftly – and that’s before anyone’s mentioned the ongoing grumbles in the dairy industry.
It’s little surprise, then, that Heath’s appearance at the NFU/FDF food and farming policy debate at the Lib Dem conference in Brighton yesterday – an event I had the good fortune to host – was met with considerable anticipation.
Heath impressed many when he spoke at a Westminster Hall dairy debate earlier this month. He won plaudits – especially among farmers – for promising to consider legislation should the recently agreed voluntary code of conduct on contracts fails to produce results. But there had been few other opportunities thus far to hear him speak on other food-related matters.
So what could be gleaned from Heath’s performance yesterday? Unsurprisingly, giving his brief and current in-tray, farming issues featured heavily. Indeed, farmers – who made up a significant proportion of the 100-or-so-strong audience in the Old Ship Hotel last night – will have been delighted with Heath’s unequivocal stance on the badger cull.
No, he doesn’t like the cull. “No-one wants to kill badgers and no one wants to go through what will be a difficult period for all of us while this cull goes ahead,” he told delegates. But he is persuaded there’s a strong scientific case for it.
There were similarly strong messages on CAP reform, with Heath – a renowned EU-sceptic – stressing he wanted the UK to play a full part in negotiations in Brussels, regardless of any wider misgivings about Europe. “I am notorious for my views on the EU, but we must fight our corner on CAP reform,” he said. “It is absolutely vital that CAP reform doesn’t put UK farmers at a disadvantage to European farmers.”
Manufacturers and retailers, meanwhile, will be interested to hear Heath believes the food and drink trade needs to get a bit more “glamorous” to attract more young people. His suggestion – CSI Sainsbury’s.
“I often say I wish there were a programme called CSI Sainsbury’s to do for the food sciences what the CSI programmes did for forensics,” he told delegates.
Over to you, Holborn.
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