Friends, it’s a pleasure to be here and a particular pleasure to follow Minette’s brilliant speech. It’s particularly reassuring, Minette, to know that at the end of what’s been a highly successful year of your presidency that the NFU meets in good order under your leadership. And, of course, we meet at a time when the world is facing change.
Our world is at inflection point. Political, technological, social and environmental forces are reshaping the globe more powerfully than ever before, and at an accelerating pace. If we are together to meet, and master, those forces it will require of us - all - adaptability, imagination and clarity of vision.
A Union That Wins
And when it comes to adaptability, imagination and clarity of vision this union is fortunate. Your President, Minette, is one of the most impressive leaders in British public life today. In her first year in office, and it has been a busy first year in office, she has already achieved a huge amount - and I know that she will succeed in achieving even more for you in the months and years ahead.
In the last year, thanks to Minette’s leadership, and the combined efforts of her superb team - Terry Jones, Nick von Westenholz, Guy Smith, Stuart Roberts, John Davis from NFU Cymru among others - the NFU’s voice has been heard at the heart of Government and the changes that you have asked for have, in many cases, been secured.
Alone among sectors, farming has quite rightly secured special treatment in future migration policy with the establishment of a new pilot seasonal workers scheme which has the potential to expand as the market requires in the future.
Again, thanks to NFU advocacy, changes were made this summer to rules on abstraction and grazing to help farmers through a particularly challenging time.
The NFU’s careful deployment of arguments not only shaped our initial Agriculture Bill - the first for a generation - but amendments that your union have been instrumental in designing look set to strengthen it yet further.
Already, the Bill creates new powers to improve the functioning of the supply chain, to support farmers through extreme market disturbance, to safeguard producer organisations and provide new sources of income for farming business. And we are in new discussion about how to go further to support the sustainability of food production and to protect our high standards that Minette rightly underlined were so important in a competitive trading environment
We have been clear - across Government, from the Prime Minister down - that we will not lower our standards in pursuit of trade deals, and that we will use all the tools at our disposal to make sure the standards are protected and you are not left at a competitive disadvantage.
That is why today I welcome Minette’s call to establish a Commission bringing together expertise from across the country and across sectors to ensure that we can maintain the world-class standards which give British food producers their well-deserved global reputation.
It’s not just on maintaining standards that your voice has been heard. You have won guarantees on future funding too.
NFU advocacy has helped guarantee consistent levels of cash support for farming until 2022 - a more durable guarantee than any other EU nation currently enjoys....
Follow the link to read the speech in full on the GOV.UK website