Website Content

Jump to footer

In the hot seat: Mary Creagh

FARMERS WEEKLY
22 September 2011 by Caroline Stocks


Shadow DEFRA minister Mary Creagh talks to Caroline Stocks
about culls, CAP reform and industry concerns

EXTRACTS:

How have you found your role as shadow DEFRA minister?

It's a huge challenge and a complex and exciting area. Everything from water to resources, waste and farming - it's a massive agenda and it's been shaped by the comprehensive spending review and the government's decisions around that - particularly Caroline Spelman's very early settlement, which has hindered her room for manoeuvre in terms of policy. We have also started thinking about future policies, asking questions about what sort of world we'll see when we're back in government in five year's time, or whenever that may be.

Did you want the brief?

I wanted to be in the shadow cabinet and there are no small jobs in the shadow cabinet. There are about a dozen farmers in my constituency who I have met and all of us have a relationship with the land through our families - my paternal grandparents were cattle farmers in Ireland.

Does it matter that you and your team don't have a rural background?

The main thing is to seek out and listen to people with interests in your areas. You don't expect the health secretary to be a surgeon. Our political system means we are generalists, but I know I can pick up the phone to NFU president Peter Kendall about his issues on farming.

---

Have you tried to come up with your own farming policies or have you picked up from where your predecessor, Hilary Benn, left off?

I took his guidance and have immense respect for his judgement. But certainly on the badgers issue I went back to basics. I didn't want to just say "I have inherited the policy and I will accept it unquestioningly". I met Lord Krebs and scientists. I spent a lot of time thinking about it and asking parliamentary questions. I was very clear we were serious about tackling the issue of TB, but I'm very clear the proposal for a partial cull is not the answer.

Why not?

In each cull area there will be five fewer breakdowns per year. The cull will cost £1m and an unspecified cost to the farmer, all for five fewer breakdowns. That would be a 2.5% reduction in confirmed herd breakdowns, which is not the 16% reduction scientists agreed with trapping and shooting option more, which were suggesting more than nine years ago. This isn't a solution and the reduction in R&D is a catastrophe - it's short-sighted when we should be looking into an oral vaccine.

So what can be done?

We need a cordon sanitaire - we should be vaccinating where there isn't bovine TB to prevent the spread and clarify the causes of the disease. We have to prevent it from spreading further and I have suggested this idea of badger vaccination to Lord Krebs. We have to make sure the disease doesn't spread and then push it back.

How can you answer the concerns of farmers who are already battling with the disease?

I can't. We didn't have the answer. We genuinely looked at what possible solutions there could be. But what I can see is a small amount of free shooting would not be the solution they are looking for. If you pursue a cordon sanitaire you could start from Cornwall because you have the sea and narrow peninsula and go up and squeeze on both sides if you can prove it works. That's the only new idea I have had on badgers.

You have launched a campaign against the government's cull proposals. How has that gone?

We have had 7,000 people sign up, which is very encouraging and shows the strength of feeling on this issue. It's not just animal lovers, there's a significant minority of farmers opposed to this as well.

---

Do mega farms have a place in helping UK meet those food security challenges?

At the moment they are planning issues and so far planners have not been convinced that they won't have a detrimental impact. I think there are potential welfare issues, but most people don't realise that cows in Italy are mostly fed in sheds because there's no grass. I think part of it is animal welfare and getting that right and making sure we get food production that's sustainable and won't impact negatively on the environment.

But what is you view on mega farms?

 

It's not really about my personal view, but I think a lot of consumers are uncomfortable with the idea, in the same way as battery chickens where we have led the way in Europe for higher welfare farming and we have got a balance between the desire for higher welfare standards with the need to not export jobs overseas.

More HERE

Past News

brianmay.com
Bookmark and Share