Gordon Brown pays tribute to farming industry at NFU Centenary Conference

Prime Minister Gordon Brown has thanked the farming industry for what it does and indicated that food security is an issue that is going back up the government's agenda.

In a speech to 1000 people attending the NFU Centenary Conference Dinner on Monday night (Feb 18), Mr Brown praised the resilience and ingenuity of farmers and called the union a "great national institution".

"You [the NFU] are held in esteem, respect affection and perhaps I should say awe by politicians and the people of this country," he said.

"You are a great national institution renowned for speaking truth to power, telling people how it is even when it is uncomfortable to hear it."

Mr Brown said that farming was not just one item of policy on a list of issues he had to deal with.

"For my family it has been a way of life over the fabric of history. I can trace back my father's family through generations of farmers.

"And while my father didn't follow my grandfather on the land, but became a minister of the church, I have very fond memories of holidays on the farm. I remember helping with the wheat and barley harvest in the school holidays was my first paid employment."