EN for Business - A cock and bull story?

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A cock and bull story?

Thursday, 21 September 2006

Life is becoming increasingly tough down on the farm..

Yet as the UK's agricultural base shrinks and farming as an industry becomes less relevant, EN asks whether the region's farmers should be left to plough their own furrow?

At the recent launch events for the North West Development Agency's Regional Economic Strategy and the Northern Way's Annual Report, the talk among the region's politicos was all about city-regions. The influential Institute for Public Policy Research has been preaching the importance of city-regions through its Centre for Cities unit for some time, and the message seems to have been warmly embraced by mandarins in both Whitehall and Warrington.
One can see the reasoning behind this. Around 90 per cent of the North West's population live in urban areas, and Liverpool and Manchester are the two most familiar 'brands' when marketing the region to a national or even international audience. However, there is a danger with this approach.
Firstly, it marginalises the rural economy as a whole, which makes up 88 per cent of the North West's land mass and is home to more than 40 per cent of its businesses (although these only contribute 23 per cent of GVA). Secondly, it means that future policy and resource decisions are channelled into urban areas, thereby further weakening rural communities and causing a flight of talented young workers away from their homes and into cities to chase better employment prospects, creating a vicious circle for rural employers struggling to recruit staff.
A prime example is agriculture. As an industry, it now contributes so little to the region's GDP (less than one per cent) that policymakers might effectively argue it is no longer a suitable case for treatment. Indeed, the creation of a new universal Business Link service for the region will lead to a significant decrease in the number of advisors at local levels in places like Cumbria and the northern part of Lancashire. However, as the North West's new Food & Farming Champion Will Cockbain points out, this would be a strategic disaster. Cockbain, whose family have farmed livestock on the Cumbrian hills for over 300 years, has been appointed to his independent post after several years campaigning as the National Farmers' Union's spokesman for deprived areas..

"It might be only 0.8 per cent of the economy, but it influences so much else and without it the much larger food sector is damaged. This, too, has a knock-on effect. It is vital for the rural economy and it is the starting point for so much of our industry."
For instance, the North West's £8.5 billion-a-year food and drink industry (responsible for 12 per cent of GVA, and one of six key areas highlighted as vital to the region's economy) will suffer without the supply of quality regional produce, and if farmers are forced by economic circumstances to give up their stewardship of the land, the region's tourist industry and the 63 per cent of service-based businesses that make up the rural economy would also begin to suffer. However, since the sector's problems are seemingly caused by global market forces, can they be tackled with limited budgets at a local level?
Cockbain believes they can, simply by promoting food provenance and raising awareness among people of all ages about what they eat. He says the dramatic rise in the popularity of organic food (a Mintel report has shown that organic food sales have doubled in the UK since 2000, up to £1.2 billion) is a sign that people care about these issues.
He advocates launching a campaign promoting the benefits of local food, particularly to the environment. Climate change, he says, is an issue that many people acknowledge needs addressing, but few are willing to get out of their cars or give up their holidays. Moreover, he says that he doesn't particularly think they need to – emissions can be dramatically reduced if people can be convinced to buy local produce.
"If you asked the average family whether they were willing to pay an extra £2-£5 a week to help reduce climate change, I think the majority would do it," he says. "It's about helping people to make the right choices."
The shopping culture and habits of consumers may have been changed beyond all recognition by the supermarkets, but Cockbain argues that there isn't an inevitability about this and efforts can be made by producers to gain a decent price for their produce through other methods.
For instance, a new meat processing unit in Cumbria owned by a farmers' co-operative not only allows independent farmers a greater share of the profit made on each animal sold, but they can pool resources and create a brand, such as "Cumbrian Lamb" to add value to the meat they sell. Similarly, deals have been done with local authority catering arms, and a £5 million deal has recently been struck between Cumbria County Council and local producers.
"I think the more people know about locally-produced food and how it links with the environment and the countryside that they enjoy, the more they'll be willing to buy into it. We have to make sure they have that opportunity."