Alistair Carmichael: "80 years of Government interference in the food market has hard-wired unfairness into it. It is Britain's farmers who have lost out as a result"

Every cloud has a silver lining.

If there is one benefit that has come from the Government's Inheritance Tax raid on farms, it is surely the spotlight that has been placed on the meagre income that farmers actually make from their property.

For those already familiar with the smell of silage and slurry this has of course been no great revelation.

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'Asset rich, cash poor' has been the reality for farmers and crofters for decades.

Welcome though it is that people (if not the Government themselves) are starting to wake up to the poor wage paid to those who supply our country's food, the question remains: what are we going to do about it?

Answering that challenge fully would take more space than I have available today, so I am going to focus on just one element – getting a fairer deal for farmers and a fairer price for their product.

That is why next Wednesday (March 19) I will be introducing the Food Supply Chain Fairness Bill in Parliament.

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I have been ploughing this particular furrow (if you will forgive the pun) for some years already, though taking on the Chair of the House of Commons Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee has given me more scope to zero-in on the problem.

Well-meaning or not, 80 years of Government interference in the food market has hard-wired unfairness into it.

It is Britain's farmers who have lost out as a result.

We all know the problems in getting fairer farmgate prices.

Food supply chain fairness is about supporting farmers but we should not allow it to be portrayed as a problem for consumers.

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For decades the major supermarkets have taken advantage of their market dominance to drive hard bargains with food producers, drive down input costs and drive up their profits.

All this has been done in the name of 'cheap' food, but somehow cheap food still involves inflated profits for supermarkets.

You do not have to be Albert Einstein to work out who loses out in that equation.

Market regulation is still a fairly recent phenomenon in the food supply chain.

It is still only twelve years since the Groceries Code Adjudicator (GCA) was set up.

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Since then the Agriculture Act of 2020 has imposed another layer of regulation to the heap, but nothing is joined up and the outcomes for farmers do not seem to be much better than before.

The establishment of the GCA was an important first step but I do not think anyone thought it would be the last word.

Now is the time to beef up its remit – and more besides.

We need to give the GCA meaningful resources and the regulatory muscle it needs to act, and to strengthen the hand of farmers and food producers.

I know that these are areas of significant interest for the farming unions and other rural organisations such as the Countryside Alliance and CLA, and I have been glad to take their advice and support in developing the plan that I am bringing forward next week.

I hope that the Government will engage with this Bill constructively to deliver on these goals – and I would strongly encourage you to reach out to your local MP and tell them to back the Bill when it comes to Parliament on Wednesday (March 19).

With enough support, this could be the opportunity – a start at least – for the Government to craft a silver lining to the dark cloud they have created for themselves, and reset their relationship with farmers.

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