I report from FTSE boardrooms and City bars, but I also spend time – mostly in Yorkshire, currently in France – among farmers who often feel ignored by the rest of the business media. This week, with three-quarters of England officially in drought and produce imports afflicted by fierce heat across Europe, agriculture is for once top of the agenda. So what has this freakish summer really done to our fields?
My northern arable correspondent has never seen an earlier harvest, with ‘barley less than average, oilseed rape excellent, wheat OK on heavy clay but very poor on lighter soils. Slight rises in crop prices won’t compensate for yield reductions, we’ve lost the safety net of direct acreage subsidies – and a single spark from a combine or baler can set whole fields alight.’
The truth is that farmers cope with nature’s vicissitudes but are rarely helped by politicians, especially Labour, who would rather not hear NFU president Tom Bradshaw banging the drum for UK food resilience and import reduction. But it’s a glaring long-term problem which is now pointing straight to a food price spike that will derail Andy Burnham’s flashy cost-of-living campaign. He and his Defra Secretary, Dame Angela Eagle, had better get their wellies on.
