Opinion: A brief history of farm protectionism and why it’s right

The cast of The History Boys. © Snap Stills/Rex Shutterstock

Congratulations to all who, by their demonstrations and lobbying, have persuaded consumers, supermarkets and the government of the need to pay more for milk.

Whether the reluctant responses of some retailers will have a lasting effect remains to be seen and much depends on how processors distribute any extra cash.

Meanwhile, Defra prefers to promote better branding, the possibility of exports to China and persuading the EU to help.

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Hardly the urgency required for what it accepts is a crisis.

David Richardson farms about 400ha of arable land near Norwich in Norfolk in partnership with his wife Lorna and his son Rob

Why do politicians metaphorically shrug their shoulders and throw up their hands in such a situation saying, “Sorry chaps, there’s not much we can do – it’s nothing to do with us”?

Of course it is to do with them. They create the business environment in which farmers have to operate.

Quota abolition

What did they think was going to happen when they abolished milk quotas and encouraged farmers to produce more to become competitive?

OK, it wasn’t just the British government – EU member states were all involved. But Britain led the calls for abolition and it got its way.

I was an unashamed advocate of quotas back in the early 1980s and I argued against their abolition because I anticipated what has now happened.

World overproduction has simply made things much worse.

“I was an unashamed advocate of quotas back in the early 1980s and I argued against their abolition because I anticipated what has now happened” – David Richardson

My prediction now is so many UK dairy farmers will be forced out of business that we shall soon be importing the majority of our milk and milk products.

Only a small number of farmers with several hundred-cow herds will be left in this country.

And it’s not just dairy farmers who are suffering from the industrialisation of our industry.

Around the world and especially across Europe commodities are being sold off farms at prices below cost of production.

Cereals, lamb, beef cattle, sugar beet, oil seeds, are all losing money.

Why? Because governments have been persuaded by economists that free for all markets are the most efficient way to produce food.

The trouble is they have not learned the lessons of history.

Corn Laws

Let us start with the Corn Laws which, in 1815, imposed import tariffs on grain imports to Britain to protect domestic food supplies.

Urban opposition, which claimed the laws kept food prices too high, led to their repeal in 1846 and farming struggled on for 20 or so years without them.

Then as the Midwest of America began producing huge quantities of wheat and the cost of shipping reduced, Europe was flooded with US grain.

Domestic prices halved, production declined and for several years large numbers of British farmers went bust.

It was only at the outbreak of the First World War in 1914 that the government of the day introduced measures to raise home production and farm prices and profits rose.

Depression

After the war farming was again neglected and went into depression, like the rest of the economy.

And it took the growing threat of another war in Europe during the 1930s to persuade politicians to do something about what was a declining industry.

The Second World War was profitable for farming and after it was over the industry was restructured and supported on the back of rationing and increasing demand.

I won’t continue with history because most will know the rest of the story.

But my point is that historically agriculture has needed governmental protection, production management and profit.

Take them away and there’s chaos. Sounds familiar? And is the crisis affecting commodities any way to prepare to feed 70 million people in the UK and 10 billion around the world in a few years time?