Last week the Prime Minister held his second ‘Farm to Fork’ summit. This is a forum for all those involved in food production, including supermarkets, to find solutions to the issues affecting our farming community.
During the summit, the UK’s ‘food security index’ was published. This will monitor food production in any year to identify any shocks that could hamper the ability of farmers to deliver their produce, and help them manage the effects of these shocks.
In recent years, extreme weather events, the war in Ukraine and the sky rocketing price of fertiliser has tested even the hardiest of farmers. So, I was pleased to see a further commitment to increasing the amount of fruit and veg we grow here in the UK by cutting red tape for glasshouses, additional funding to help build resilience in the sector and tackling export barriers, amongst other measures.
This was all welcome news coming hot on the heels of my recent meeting with the local branch of the NFU, who I meet with regularly (and i'm pictured above with).
As well as discussions about food security and the issues around grant funding, there was also much debate about rural crime.
I learnt from the NFU that, in their most recent survey, the costs associated with rural crime increased by 22 percent. And that’s just the financial costs. There’s also the psychological and material effects of what can sometimes be repeated trespassing and acquisitive crimes on their land.
Whilst farm machinery and tools are often the target of these crimes, a highly salient issue at the moment is hare coursing, which despite the threat of a fine or prison sentence on conviction, is still happening in our area. The people involved in pursuing this ‘sport’ will apparently stop at nothing – damaging crops, property and intimidating farmers. With farmland covering over 35,000 hectares of East Hampshire you can’t police every field all the time, but I’m pleased to see that the Police and Crime Commissioner is tackling this issue head on.
A dedicated police operation has now been set up to tackle the scourge of hare coursing, including a more extensive use of ANPR cameras and pre-emptively going after the people who commit these crimes. I do hope we start to see the stats for hare coursing come down in Hampshire.
It is a much-used phrase that farmers are the lifeblood of our economy, but it’s true. Without them we have no food, no one taking care of our fields, trees and hedgerows and creating homes for millions of native animals and birds. It is vital these stewards of our land and of our food have the support they need.
