Mark Casci: Our politicians' silence over agriculture could point the way to salvation for farmers

ONCE again, the issues of agriculture and rural affairs have played little or zero role in the proceedings leading up to election day.

Forced to take a back seat to matters such as the NHS, immigration and foreign policy, many rural voters could be forgiven for wondering if any of the parties were worthy of their vote.

Things should be different this year. Since voters last headed to the polls in a General Election, the foundation of our whole economy came perilously close to collapse.

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The weakness of our banks, something we take for granted, was laid bare for all to see – as was their susceptibility to turmoil from outside forces.

All parties will be using and invoking this near miss with oblivion more and more as we head towards May 6 but few will mention another near miss we have had recently – one that is equally as prevalent and concerning.

In 2008, food prices began to rise dramatically without warning.

Problems with harvests thousands of miles away from our homes in Yorkshire set off a chain of events in the global marketplace which saw staples of everyday life such as bread and milk suddenly costing us much more than we were accustomed to.

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The biggest crisis that can face a country arises when something that we take for granted is suddenly taken away or threatened.

The surge in food prices, like the economic crisis, showed us all just how fragile our food security can be and in truth represented a mere warning of what could unfold.

Our planet's population is rising at a rate unseen in the history of the world. Scientists predict we will need to double the amount of food we produce in order to prevent mass starvation.

And while one's instinct may be to imagine such food shortages would never be seen in the UK, the reality is that we would be as affected as anyone.

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Ensuring a sustainable and profitable future for Britain's farming industries is one of the most fundamental tasks facing our country today – Yorkshire and Britain's farmers know this, and I am sure most voters know this too.

One would imagine with this in mind that agriculture would top the manifestos of every major party, with farmers being seduced by promises galore from party leaders who are eager for their votes.

Again, reality paints a different picture.

Farming is not mentioned in Labour's manifesto until page 59. The Tories do not feature agriculture until page 97. You are past page 50 before you read a mention of farming in the Lib Dem blueprint. While it would be unfair to suggest that priorities of the party leaders are reflected by the order in which they appear in their manifestos it is not unfair to point towards the lack of new ideas.

The Liberal Democrats make a new promise to revise the Single Farm Payment system to give working farmers more and hobby farmers less – a worthy and righteous pledge which should have been made a reality from the scheme's inception.

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For Labour and the Tories, none of their campaign promises offer any policies that we haven't heard before.

All parties make the claim that they will aggressively fight for a decent deal for Britain when the Common Agricultural Policy is reformed in the next few years. They will need to, adapting the Single Farm Payment scheme and making markets fairer for both farmers and consumers will be a vital part of ensuring we can feed ourselves effectively in the next decade.

All parties also pledge to take a lead on labelling to end dishonest practices of retailers who label food as British when it has been produced abroad, something that farmers and the Yorkshire Post have been asking for during the past five years.

And all parties promise to fight for a supermarket ombudsman, something which is due to happen via the statute book anyway.

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While it is easy to take the absence of new ideas as a slight on rural areas, or indeed a symptom of lack of substance in the 2010 election campaign, I would suggest not. A Government that fights for British farmers is vital to the sector's future but the silence surrounding our elected leaders' opinions on agriculture could well turn out to be the salvation the sector needs. Burdensome regulation and pointless legal constraints represent one of the biggest headaches facing virtually every farmer I talk to. The last thing that farmers need is more red tape and intervention in the industry that has been so successful and intrinsic to British life throughout our country's history.

Britain's population is six times what it was in 1700 and is 58 times as high as it was in Roman times. Consistently UK farmers have risen to the challenge of producing more food without the assistance of bureaucrats or politicians.

The modern globalised world will, of course, necessitate some sort of governmental input into the world of farming. However, less

intervention and more backing when it counts will be the campaign pledge that all Yorkshire and UK farmers want to see.

It's all they have ever sought.

Mark Casci is the Yorkshire Post's agricultural correspondent.