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IT remains to be seen whether many farmers heed Environment Secretary Hilary Benn's call to "vote Labour" at the forthcoming election. Many still find themselves at the mercy of the Rural Payments Agency – that lasting symbol of Government wastefulness.
By The Newsroom
Published 23rd Feb 2010, 20:27 BST
Updated 23rd Feb 2010, 20:27 BST

However, Mr Benn can take great credit for his role in making farmers feel valued again, and championing the importance of the wider agricultural industry in these challenging, and changing, times.

Testament to this is the growing number of supermarkets and restaurant chains who are signing up to a voluntary labelling code, instigated by the Government, and which is designed to promote truly British produce rather than foreign imports masquerading as locally-sourced food under misleading labels. This has been instrumental in helping farmers survive these troubled times – while also ensuring that they are rewarded for the stringent hygiene and welfare rules that they have to abide by at all times.

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Yet there is a wider lesson that can be learned from this pragmatism and it is this: new laws, the Government's stock answer to so many policy difficulties, do not have to be passed to achieve change for the better. There's still a place for co-operation and the power of persuasion, two commodities that have become scarce in recent times.

It also leaves those stores and restaurants who have yet to sign up to the voluntary code with one option, and that is to become champions of British farming without further delay.

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