Lord Haskins replies
From Lord Haskins Sir: George Monbiot's article on me (`Lord of all he purveys', 1 September) spectacularly refuses to allow the facts to undermine his prejudices. In Monbiot's world, all food manufacturers, supermarkets and large farmers are inherently evil, and when he runs up against inconvenient facts which don't suit his case he either ignores them or distorts them. In his somewhat vitriolic polemic, he blatantly misrepresents my views.
I have never pressed for the closure of small farms and their consolidation into giant agro-industrial combines. I have merely observed that the number of farms has been declining in this country for a century and a half, for social as well as economic reasons, and can see little reason why this trend will reverse. But my ideas for reform of the Common Agricultural Policy would seek to reduce this decline by switching from market subsidies which favour large farms to environmental support which would favour small ones.
Monbiot says that I have mocked consumers for rejecting genetically modified ingredients and demanding organic food. I have never suggested that people should be obliged to use GM ingredients; but they should be able to choose. For example, farmers should not be banned from using imported GM soya for animal feed. I believe that there are environmental concerns about GM technology which should be carefully evaluated in trials.
With regard to organic food, I suspect that Monbiot knows, but has chosen to ignore, the fact that I spoke at a conference recently, chaired by Peter Melchett, where I suggested ways of marketing organic food more effectively.
I have never recommended the closure of local markets, and I plan to support schemes for reviving and expanding them in Cumbria.
Monbiot goes even more ballistic when he talks about Northern Foods. Imagine his disappointment when he was told by the company that it has never used mechanically recovered beef in its products. He wants chapter and verse on this, and I can give it to him because I myself rejected a request to invest in this activity way back in 1978.
He sneers at my hobby farm in Yorkshire, which is in fact run by my full-timefarming eldest son, and the farm in Ireland which is owned and run by my full-time farming second son. He suggests that they should not claim the subsidies to which they are entitled, refusing to recognise that in the heavily subsidised farming economy a farmer who unilaterally did not take the money would not remain a farmer for long.
I am touched to read of Monbiot's concerns that Northern Foods' sales are stagnating, but he can be reassured that, alongside the welcome buoyancy of organic sales, the demand for Northern's high-quality, safe and innovative products in all the major supermarkets is also booming.
Monbiot appears to reject the idea of family farms seeking work outside farming to supplement their income, but today nearly half of British farms do just that. The parttime farmer/part-time BMW worker has been a feature in Bavaria for a generation.
I am also intrigued to know where Monbiot gets the evidence to make the extraordinary charge that 'most of the criminal prosecutions for neglect of farm animals involve this kind of [part-time] business'.
Finally, the shareholders of Northern Foods await with trepidation the impact of Monbiot's personal boycott of its products. It must be a great comfort to believe, as Monbiot does, that he has the high moral ground and can therefore treat the rest of us as blithering idiots who cannot distinguish between fact and fiction. But I think he is deluding himself, or is he just using your columns to publicise his forthcoming book?
Christopher Haskins
Chairman, Northern Foods plc, Hull
Previous page
