Britain’s Home Food Production

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 12, Issue 70, 19 July 1948, Page 5

Britain’s Home Food Production

N.Z. JOURNALIST SEES FOR HIMSELF (By Reece Smith, N.Z. Kemsley Empire Journalist) ~ London, July 1. A few cows viewed from the dining car window at 60 miles per hour comprised the sum total of my knowledge of British agriculture when we four Empire journalists went to interview the Minister of Agriculture, Mr Tom Williams. Mr Williams has been described by the Sunday Express as “the first Gentleman of the Labour Party.” He was certainly most courteous to us in the face of some questions which any ploughman could have answered while plodding home his weary way. Farming, he thought to be a sound proposition the world over. “There is no hope in sight of the world ever having all the food it needs, so farmers are on a good wicket,” he said. “If world population increases by one per cent it will'need aother fifty million acres of arable land, which are not to be found.”

No Threat To N.Z. On these statements he based his assurance that, no matter how Britain increased her own farming output, it was no threat to New Zealand farmers. Britain’s target is to be 60 per cent by value, 50 per cent by calories, self-supporting. So even when her farming swings back from the wartime emphasis on cereals to the meat, milk, eggs, vegetables and fruit to which it is more suited, there will be plenty of room for New Zealand’s produce. During the debate on the Agriculture Act, 1947, now the rule book of British farming, Mr Williams said: “We shall rely upon advice and the price mechanism to steer production in the direction desired by national policy, subject to one exception—national emergency. Price Mechanism The price mechanism, according ffr>;his. .-department,, (designed (a) ■to’ give the farmers a reasonable return;- (b) to encourage production of crops required by the Government; (c) to ensure a product is available at the time of year when it is especially needed, e.g., winter milk; (d) to discourage wasteful forms of production. Farmers are to know actual prices and the size of the guaranteed market for crops at least 18 months before tljey are harvested, and for

livestock products for the following 12 months. For livestock products the minimum prices and markets will be known from two to four years ahead. Further to quote the department: “The prices charged to consumers are fixed to implement the Government’s policy of holding the cost of living steady at a comparatively low figure. These objectives are realised through the Ministry of Food’s Trading Account, which buys food at one array of prices and resells at another and, in the main, lower array of prices. £2OO Million Loss “The loss on the Ministry of Food’s Trading Account in respect of home produce approaches £2OO million a year, but this figure includes the loss on food welfare schemes such as milk in schools.” I have not yet heard what any farmer has to say about this subsidy, but it seems hardly likely he will consider himself worse ofi than before the war, when British agriculture was a forlorn and forgotten craft. One respect in which the Ministry of Agriculture target has fallen grievously short is the recruitment of farm labour. Mr Williams could advance no reason for the discrepancy between the target figures and those attained. He confessed he had not done as well as he had hoped in building farm cottages, but this would not account for so great a gap in the ranks. Back To Bright Lights Numbers of British ex-servicemen declared they wanted to take up farming at the end of the war, did their training period, then hied back to the bright lights. From what I know of London, I do not in the least blame them. By 1951, manpower needs for the agricultral programme are expected to be 1,170,000. About a year ago the farm labour force totalled 1,045,000 workers (6000 of them foreigners) and 60,000-prisoners of war, the ethical justification for whose continued employment eluded me. The last of the prisoners who wanted to has recently V left -for; home, but'2o,ooo voluntarily remain on the farms of Britain under civil contract. This year a further 43,000 displaced persons from Europe—Poles, Balts and so on—are expected to be placed as farm labourers. This will leave 62,000 British workers needed to bring manpower up to strength. They cannot be found. The answer will almost certainly be more Europeans.