Fewer reports, more support!

WE SEE that Baroness Minette Batters, formerly of the National Farmers Union (NFU), has entered the revolving doors of the corridors of power and has been asked by Steve Reed, Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, to lead a government programme called the “Farming Profitability Review”.

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In this role she will provide “short, medium and long-term recommendations” and suggest actions for supporting farm profitability by the government. The results are to be published in six months and will serve a useful purpose for Mr Reed.

By commissioning this report he is stating that he is aware of farming’s financial distress and was prepared to ask someone from the farming industry for solutions.

How many more reports do we need? We might say cynically that, as with so many of them, this one may well be ignored along with the elephant in the room of the basic fact that subsidies bridge the gap between the cost of production and what consumers pay.