Conference debates future of farming
Around 100 delegates from rural industries converged on Sparsholt College recently for the largest professional farming event in the county.
The Hampshire Farming Conference offers those in the farming community and related fields the opportunity to come together and listen to keynote speakers tackle pertinent issues surrounding the rural economy, to discuss these matters and to network with others. The annual event is organised by Hampshire County Council and supported by Natwest and the Hampshire Economic Partnership. This year’s conference was held on 16 June.
Councillor Ray Ellis, Hampshire County Council’s Executive Member for Rural Affairs and Human Resources, commented: "The Farming Hampshire Conference always provides food for thought, and this year was no different. The speakers offered a valuable insight into the future of farming through their talks on current issues such as anaerobic digestion, lightening the regulation burden, and the need to recruit and retain the farmers of the future.
"It also highlighted the national importance of food security and the need to increase the percentage of home grown food production, which is currently only 52% of the requirement."
At the Conference Richard Macdonald from the independent Farming Regulation Task Force talked about the need to reduce the red tape surrounding the farming industry and how a partnership of trust between producers and the Government needs to be developed. Specific examples were drawn from the Task Force’s report including live stock movements and water management.
The partnership theme was continued with David Neal-Smith from European Food and Farming Partnership talking about how collaboration, forward planning and developing large scale new supply chains are key to future success and illustrating this with industry examples such as the English Mustard growers co-operative working with Unilever to secure locally grown Mustard for Colman’s.
Helen Bower, President of the Women’s Food & Farming Union, spoke about food security and the need to educate our children on the process involved in getting food onto their plates. A survey by the National Farmer’s Union found that young people did not know that ham and bacon come from a pig and thought milk comes from the supermarket.
Richard Gueterbock of the Royal Agricultural Society for England and Julian Marks Managing Director at Barfoots of Botley presented different perspectives on Anaerobic Digestion. Richard gave an overview of the benefits and challenges and Julian offered his personal experience on what is involved in developing an Farm Anaerobic Digestion plant.
To close the event Tim Jackson, Principal of Sparsholt College, explained how there is a need to dispel the negative perceptions that farming is low paid, with poor working conditions and that the work is undemanding intellectually. The college has been working with the industry to develop an apprenticeship programme that is aimed to help recruit and retain future farmers.
Farming is the largest manufacturing sector of the UK economy employing around four million people -17,000 in Hampshire.
