WHAT DID WE HEAR AT THE 57th READING AGRICULTURAL CLUB CONFERENCE LAST WEEK?

This is a long running event and which consistently attracts a very high calibre of speaker to address the students at Reading, as well as a healthy turnout of local farmers, academic staff and other friends of the University.

Last week, a packed lecture room of almost 150 first heard presentations from Karen Betts, the CEO of the Food & Drink Federation, Ed Barker, Head of Policy at the Agricultural Industries Confederation and Stuart Roberts, until recently a Vice President of the NFU, talk about the very important subject of “who is responsible for our national food security”.

My role – as a Visiting Lecturer at Reading over a number of years, is to give the students a bit of guidance and support with the running of the event and then help chair the Q & A session.?An excellent panel and well organised student group this year made my job easy!

So, what did we hear on this important subject? Over the 2 hours, the short answer to that is a “good deal”, but some of the things that struck me as being most important were as follows:

• the whole subject of food security is a global issue, not just a UK one, and is not confined to what happens at either end of the supply chain (i.e. farming and retail) but encompasses all the activity in the middle
• the issue has been heightened all round the world, but just as much in the UK as anywhere, by the combination of the COVID pandemic, Brexit, the war in Ukraine, the high level of cost and retail inflation and the impact that this has had on consumers and retailers alike
• the issues are incredibly complex. A lot of organisations and groups claim to have at least some of the answers, be they farmers, NGOs, governments and commercial supply chains
• we can’t always wait for the solutions being proposed though. ?As an industry, we need to work faster and closer together than ever before. The role of consumers is very important in all of this - not least, in helping to develop a more circular economy
• for consumers though, a whole range of issues interact with each other around this subject; these cover health, consumer safety, marketing, price, welfare and ethics, production methods and, increasingly, climate change
• there are inevitably going to be trade-offs and compromises made at all levels of the supply chain. For example, consumers claim to want “healthy foods” - but over the last 50 years consumption of crisps, biscuits, soft drinks and convenience foods have all soared
• attitudes towards food security varies around the world.?Countries like Singapore and Japan are essentially food importers and are more exposed to international market volatility, whereas as countries like the US, France and Germany are driven by a much higher degree of self sufficiency
• the UK is a net food importer. We trade food from a huge number of countries around the world and are therefore exposed to factors such as price and energy volatility, as well as food safety and climate change. The UK has though huge resources in terms of its farming and food production base, as well as its R & D capability
• we are as a society, until the recent increase in food prices, spending less on food than ever before. Consumers have a vast choice of what to buy, but demand is being polarised in a way not seen for several generations between “the haves and the have nots”
• we all have a role to help consumers understand where their food comes from and how it is produced. ?Food supply though is still a basic foundation of “public good”
• we still need a better balance to most diets with less red meat, less sugar and less fat. Farmers need to earn the trust of consumers and provide them with what they want – this is very different from 20 years ago. There is still a need for a better connected supply chain between farmer, processor, retailer and finally the consumer. Farmers need to tell other people apart from fellow farmers about all the good things they are doing
• in government organisations, we need “correct decision making” at both national and international level to deal with the shocks to the global supply chain over the last few years. This appears to have been lacking. Climate change perhaps continues to be the biggest mid to long term challenge of all
• ?despite the huge success of the food and drink sector - going back over several generations - in meeting the changing demands, needs and requirements of the consumer base, the shocks in the supply chain have all served to show the underlying weaknesses we are now faced with

Well done to the Reading students who so ably organised this event. Thanks too to the sponsors -?Old Mill, Promar International, the Thames Valley branch of the Institute of Agricultural Management and Berrys?- for all their help and support as well. Finally, thanks to the 3 excellent speakers who joined us on the evening to make the event such a success. And here’s to the 58th of these events this time next year !?

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John is a Divisional Director with Promar International, the consulting arm of Genus plc, is a Visiting Lecturer at the University of Reading and serves on the Council of the Institute of Agricultural Management.