LAST week's Great Yorkshire Show was a triumph. Many volunteers combine with the staff of the Yorkshire Agricultural Society to provide an excellent day out, or even three days, for the real enthusiasts.

This year the attendance reached heights not attained for quite a few years. The weather was glorious. That helps, because it brings in some of the doubters. In fact the weather was a bit too hot for ideal show going but that is just showing the usual British ability to complain about everything.

Harvest seems early this year. On the way home from the show, I saw my first field of harvested cereals of the year. I have seen quite a few since. In this weather there is nothing to cause delay.

From my point of view there is little to beat the sight of combine harvesters going about their business. It is the culmination of at least a year's work and investment. It is what enables farmers to go forward into the next year with confidence.

The countryside, always attractive, looks tip-top at the moment. The potatoes and sugar beet, so important in this part of the world, look particularly well this year. This does not bode well for potato prices. But please do not look for reductions in the prices of crisps or chips! I suspect that cost saving will be lost in the system between the farmer and the consumer.

I heard the old one about wheat being a better trade and therefore bread going up the other day on the news. There is about 6p worth of wheat in a typical loaf. I did not notice the reduction when wheat fell from £120 per tonne a few years ago to last year's £60. That disappeared into someone's pocket, which is where a price rise to £74 per tonne or so should also go. I do not suppose it will.

There was a much better atmosphere at the Yorkshire Show. The cynical would say that this just shows the shortness of memories. However, what we have to deal with is the present and the future, not with the past. We just need to learn from the past, which is more difficult.

In the extensive food pavilions at Harrogate, some of the best food in the country was on display. I do believe that much of UK food is getting better and better. Local food initiatives and regional branding are encouraging consumers to buy food which has been produced in the local area. It does not have to travel so far, and generates income and employment where it is produced.

The supermarkets also seem to be placing more emphasis on such localness. This is all most welcome. The pressure from everyone, from the Prime Minister downwards, seems to be having some effect at last.

For a number of years in this country, we have been operating with a feeling that if something comes from somewhere else it must be better. We have bought foreign goods, from cars to food and have rarely questioned the quality. We have never stopped to wonder whether we had something of our own which was as good. The effect has been to close down large parts of UK industry.

At Wetherby on Sunday, someone said to me that they had just returned from holiday in France.

The villages were all decorated with flowers and had good food markets. They then remarked that the French markets and villages were no better than the English equivalent.

The French always support things French.

The British ought to be supporting things British.

Updated: 10:57 Tuesday, July 15, 2003