•
BRASSICA CONFERENCE
•
THE
VEGETABLE
FARMER •
MARCH 2017
“
“
T
T
here is no shortage
of issues facing the
industry,” and the
range of topics discussed
reflected this.
Not surprisingly the keynote
speech by George EusticeMP,
Minister of State for Food,
Farming &Marine Environment
was dominated by Brexit. After
emphasising his first-hand
knowledge of fresh produce
and farming from the family
business in Cornwall, he added,
“Veg and salads are two of the
most innovative sectors we have
in agriculture. The CAP has
been simply stifling as themore
rules you have, themore rules
you need tomake the rules
make sense. We have a great
opportunity to go back to first
principles and decide what we
want from agricultural policy.”
Although unable to provide
specifics, he cited areas such as
environmental policies which
better reflected local conditions
and the ability to fuse good
husbandry and environmental
techniques. “There is a huge
role for science and innovation,
with the best modern genetic
technology we have,” he
stressed. “I am conscious of
concerns about the continued
availability of crop protection
products. CPD has an approach
based on the assessment of risk
and there is a great opportunity
for a fresh approach to
authorisation.”
He recognised that a solo
approachmight raise potential
issues in terms of access to the
European SingleMarket, but
cited existing arrangements
with countries such as Australia,
Canada, the United States and
New Zealand as being
workable. “Each country
legislates in accordance with
the same scientific reference
point and then recognises
equivalence for the purposes of
trade,” he explained.
One area of Mr Eustice’s
speechwhich received amixed
reactionwas his comments on
Producer Organisations. After
labour availability, the
continued support for POs has
been one of the biggest issues
for the horticultural industry,
but he seemed to suggest a
lack of support for cooperative
marketing. “Looking at the
Producer Organisationmodel,
couldwe enable them to
specialise in R&D and breeding
rather thanmarketing?” he
asked. “Many large growers are
perfectly able to deal with
16
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EUSTICE POSITIVE ON BREXIT ISSUES
BUT LACKING DETAIL
While the technical sessions during January’s UK Brassica
& Leafy Salads Conference at Peterborough focused firmly
on each sector, the political and commercial presentations
which surrounded themwere not only relevant to both,
but to the wider produce industry. As conference
chairman JackWard pointed out
by Richard Crowhurst
FarmingMinister, George EusticeMP.
