United front to ease crisis in countryside

FEW - farmers aside - will lament the passing of MAFF. The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food has long been one of our most unloved institutions. Rightly or wrongly, it has been seen as bureaucratic, out of touch, inhumane (look at its long-term policy of exterminating badgers to prevent spread of bovine TB) and too much in hock to agribusiness at the expense of other aspects of rural life.

Then along came foot and mouth, cruelly exposing its inadequacies for all to see. Argue it as you will - and the initial prompt decision to halt movement of livestock aside - the ministry has hardly covered itself in glory. In the public mind it will be forever associated with the image of funeral pyres as thousands of carcasses burned, despoiling some of our most beautiful countryside.

With foot and mouth still raging in North Yorkshire, some may question the timing. But Tony Blair's decision to scrap the ministry and replace it with a new Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) right at the beginning of his second term comes as no surprise.

The Prime Minister made it pretty clear back at the beginning of the election campaign that this was going to happen.

When he launched Labour's election manifesto in mid May, he promised a new 'Department of Rural Affairs' to "lead renewal in rural areas" - making it clear that as far as he was concerned, MAFF wasn't up to the job.

"There is no doubt that, coming to the end of the foot and mouth outbreak, we need change," he said.

"We can't have the farming industry subject to periodic crisis again and again and again."

Strong stuff from a Prime Minister who has always been careful with his choice of words. And Mr Blair wasted no time in fulfilling his pledge - signalling the seriousness of his intent by making the highly-respected Margaret Beckett the new Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. A big hitter to run an important new department.

That new department, according to the official government website, will "spearhead a major new drive on green issues and the countryside. In addition to taking over responsibility for agriculture, the food industry and fisheries from MAFF, it will take on the environment, rural development, countryside, wildlife and sustainable development responsibilities of the former Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions (DETR).

"It will sponsor the Environment Agency, the Countryside Agency and English Nature. It will also take on responsibility for animal welfare and hunting from the Home Office."

It sounds ambitious: but detail is hard to come by. The new Secretary of State spent most of her first day yesterday settling into her new job, and was remaining tight-lipped about her plans for the future.

She told reporters: "It is my policy that when you move to a new department you say little until you have time to get your head around the issues."

So will DEFRA make a difference? Or will it just be a new Labour rebrand with little real substance?

It is true that many of the same people will still be doing the same jobs. Certainly, hundreds of MAFF employees at King's Pool in York and the Central Science Laboratories at Sand Hutton will see little change except in the name of the department they work for.

But James Slack, the Evening Press's parliamentary correspondent, says there is some optimism the new rural affairs department could mean a change for the better.

Bringing responsibility for the environment, the countryside generally and food production together under the same roof made more sense than having them dealt with separately by different departments, he said - and should enable the new ministry to look at countryside issues from a broader perspective.

There was a feeling that the old ministry of agriculture had been too much in thrall to agribusiness - and that the Department of the Environment had been left to deal with the consequences.

"There are quite positive feelings about the new department," he said. "Hopefully it will be able to look at the whole picture. But there will still be cynicism until people see how it performs and what sort of balance it achieves."

York's Labour MP Hugh Bayley insists the new department is a logical step in the Government's drive to reform the way countryside matters are dealt with.

The first step had been the creation of the Food Standards Agency in the last parliament, he said, which ensured officials responsible for monitoring the quality and standard of food were independent of those at MAFF involved in food production.

"The second stage is to look at food production as an integral part of a broader rural economy.

"The foot and mouth crisis showed that the rural economy is more than just farming. It showed how closely related farming, the environment and other countryside sources of employment are.

"So it makes sense to develop a holistic policy which allows bridge building between what was the Department of the Environment, MAFF and the DTI."

Those involved in rural tourism are inclined to agree. David Andrews, chief executive of the Yorkshire Tourist Board, hopes the new department will recognise more clearly the importance of tourism to the rural economy - something MAFF was notoriously bad at doing.

If it can do that, he says, it will be a move in the right direction. "On the face of it, this will be good news," he said.

Farmers are not so sure. Even if it makes sense in the long run, many local farmers, who are bracing themselves for what they fear could be another Settle up on the North York Moors, are questioning the Government's timing.

"We've got to question whether this is the right time to be staging a massive overhaul," said regional NFU spokesman Rob Simpson.

"Our first concern in Yorkshire is to tackle foot and mouth disease."

Nevertheless, farmers have pledged they will work closely with the new Secretary of State.

NFU president Ben Gill, who farms near Easingwold, said: "Over the next few days and weeks we will be keen to fully establish the exact nature and remit of the new department. We intend to work with the Secretary of State and her team to ensure that farmers' best interests are served."

For one farmer at least, however, the much-vaunted change is little more than cosmetic.

John Clark, who runs an organic farm at Cropton Mill near Pickering, says for too long MAFF put the interests of agribusiness and chemicals manufacturers above wider rural concerns. He wants smaller-scale food production, with more locally-produced food reaching the table.

If he thought there was anything in the new department that would change things, then he would welcome it, he said.

"But I think it is a packaging job. I will wait and see - but with a lot of scepticism."

Until the new department has shown the cut of its cloth, it's a scepticism that many will share.

Updated: 12:25 Tuesday, June 12, 2001