AS AGRICULTURE ministers from across Europe meet this weekend to hammer out fundamental changes to the EU's Common Agricultural Policy, Farming Reporter Justin Hawkins, argues that winning the hearts and minds of the British public could ultimately decide whether the reforms make or break the industry.

THE recent launch of the nationwide Image of Agriculture campaign comes at a time when the industry stands on the brink of tumultuous change. The campaign's success in changing public attitudes towards farmers and farming could be an important factor in deciding whether or not the coming change is for the better of for the worse.

Groups and organisations across the industry, from the NFU and the Tenant Farmers Association to the Association of British Foods and the Agricultural Engineers Association have got together to try to improve the image of agriculture and restore the connection between the food-buying, countryside-loving public and the food-producing, countryside-keeping farmers

A recent survey of 1,000 adults revealed the depth of public ignorance about British farming. It showed that the vast majority were wildly wrong, not only about the key ingredients of everyday foods, but also about what crops are grown in this country. It also showed that the population have little or no contact with the land for instance, 31 per cent of people asked believed that only around a third of Britain's land area is farmed when in fact farmers manage around 75 per cent of the land. It also showed that far fewer people had a relative working the land than was the case a generation ago.

To tackle the problem, the Image of Agriculture campaign must over turn half a century of social change.

After the food shortages during and after the Second World War, the British Government, like others in war-ravaged Europe, decided food production must be modernised. From the establishment of the European Coal and Steel Community, forged to prevent another European war, the EC eventually grew. From that the now notorious Common Agricultural Policy was born, within its subsidies for producing vast quantities of food whether or not there was anyone to eat it.

In answering those calls - and collecting the incentives - for more food farmers intensified production and a whole system of state guaranteed markets and production-based subsidies soon had them hooked.

In the meantime, public sensibilities have changed, particularly in Britain. Nowadays, with food plentiful and relatively cheap, the results of that intensification of agriculture seem unacceptable to a public increasingly concerned about animal welfare and environmental issues.

The Agriculture Ministers of Europe gather in Cyprus this weekend to discuss breaking the link between production and subsidy. It is a change which must come, but one that will have to be carefully managed. Having created the industry's addiction,

it is beholden to the EU and UK governments in years to come, not to

simply kick away the crutch that has been created. Doing that would be devastating, not only for farming families, but also for the wider rural economy and community and for the countryside.

DEFRA unveiled a new three-year strategy earlier this month in which "sustainability will underwrite everything the department does". For agriculture this apparently means "promoting a sustainable farming and food industry, focused on the market, efficient and making better use of natural resources and reducing the environmental cost of the food chain."

Most farmers would agree that was a laudable aim, but many doubt that the ministry has the will or the wherewithal to bring it about.

If farming is to have a "sustainable" future "focused on the market", DEFRA will have to perform better in the future than it has done in the past. But the public will also have to learn the value of British farming, not only for its food, which is farmed to the highest standards in the world, but also for its stewardship of the environment.

The NFU and its partners in the Image of Agriculture campaign have a mountain to climb if they are to sweep away a generation-old idea that farmers are fat cats who abuse the environment, mistreat their animals and oppose public access to the countryside in the pursuit of wealth at the expense of the taxpayer.

The campaign to do so is crucial, though, because for farming to have a genuinely sustainable future, farmers and the Government will have to learn to work together in good faith, and the public will have to believe that British farming is the kind of agriculture they want.

May 8, 2003 16:30