Farming Minister George Eustice confident farmers will be pleased with Agriculture Bill's balance

Mr Eustice spoke to media during a visit to the Great Yorkshire Show on its final day before meeting industry representatives on their stands on the showfield.

Asked if the Government could marry together the two aspects of future policy, he said: “I’m very confident about this and although I understand a number of farmers have said there wasn’t enough about food production (in the Government’s recent Health and Harmony consultation paper) there was a chapter in their about a successful farming industry for the future, there was a chapter on fairness in the supply chain and there was a chapter on research and development and innovation in equipment so there were lumps of sections in there that dealt with these issues.

“And I’m confident that when farmers see some of those proposals when they see the bill they will see that we absolutely intend to put in place a balanced package.

“The cornerstone of the new policy will indeed be a new environment land management scheme but we will be doing lots of other issues besides that too.”
Environment Secretary Michael Gove had stated his intention to table the Agriculture Bill by the end of this month - something that the farming industry is keen to see to give food producers more confidence about the future, but Mr Eustice said the timeframe had now slipped back.

Mr Eustice said: “There was an ambition that it might be done by the end of this month and when Michael Gove said that he sets stretching targets. In the event the fact that we were publishing the white paper on a future economic partnership and other issues meant we ran out of time to publish it but we do have a draft of the Agriculture Bill and we intend to introduce it in the autumn.”