Food and farming. The Labour government needs a better Minister to lead DEFRA.

[Papyrophile]

Food is a universal need, therefore farming and agricultural policy must be a high priority for any government. Could I politely ask the government to appoint a SecState DEFRA that actually represents a predominantly agricultural constituency?

I don't care whether they represent livestock farmers (mostly on the western half of the UK) or arable (grains and veg) on the eastern half of our island. The ignoramus in charge now (I'm sure he's not actually, but Daniel Zeichner represents Cambridge and knows nothing about the production of food, and he appears to have no one to ask for a non-politicised opinion) is making policy on a topic about which he knows very little. Sure, he's reading as fast as he can to get on top of things but food production has to trump re-wilding if we are going to eat, and neo-nic pesticides need to be banned because they kill pollinators, but it is going to take a very strong politician with excellent arm-twisting power to actually find a reasonable balance between food production, power gen and conserving our natural environment.

otherwise, we are all going to have to live on blackberries, because that's the only fruit that grow on brambles.

Completely agree, people have no idea how fragile our food production system is. The changes to IHT may make it worse, and swill definitely make food more expensive.

Agree. Also a rethink on covering the land with solar panels and housing for our rising population that we might rather more need for food production for 70 million people (particularly if there is a war).

If you cover five acres with solar panels and another five acres with houses, which of the two is the easier to dismantle?
I'm not offended by solar panels at all but I can see that it would be good for any government to get them up on to roofs rather than on food-producing land. Laws could be made.

Not all houses need to be two storeys high, or sprawling bungalows. Some, in the right place, could be four or six storeys high. It could be done.

Developers around here advertise the little houses with lots of leafy trees behind them in the advert picture. In reality there isn't room for anything more than tiny trees, if any, to be planted.

I have lived too long in the same place. I have watched umpteen acres of beautiful arable land covered by grey concrete, under both main parties. People move into new houses and think it's wonderful that they are almost in the country. They never saw the crops that were there before. They put lights all over the damn place, burning through the night, some of them. What for? They never saw the bats and the odd owl that were here before. There used to be farm dogs with farmers, walking on quiet lanes, no leads needed, catching rats sometimes. Now it's sodding lap-dogs on leads and whining for street lights.

I wish there would be some joined-up thinking in any government. Does the 'e' in Defra stand for 'environment'? Does Angela Rayner know what it's like when there have been several wet days but then it becomes dry again and a combine gets round before late evening and finishes the field?

I am a local yokel and therefore must be viewed as a thicko who sucks straw for Sunday dinner.

I agree with you all, obviously. And I'm not a farmer, and our local area's agricultural land is perfect for livestock so this morning the dairy herd is grazing the opposite side of the valley to produce the milk I buy direct from that farm's automated machine in a shed. I don't even object to it costing a few pence more than Tesco milk, because the farmer is capturing all the income rather than the bulk processor.

Just cross and fearful that rural people are being squashed out of the political decision-making. Our new MP is a conservationist. It sounds worthwhile; nobody wants to desecrate an AONB landscape, but food security seems IMO under siege from all the pressures of an urbanised population.