Flello calls for sustainable farming

A Labour MP has argued the case for new legislation to improve sustainable farming.

Robert Flello (Lab, Stoke on Trent South) told the Commons his private member's bill "is a 'direction-of-travel' bill that gives the secretary of state wide leeway, but nevertheless requires him to take sustainable livestock seriously, and to take action".

Flello claimed his bill would not increase the burden on farmers.

He told the House that the last government had failed to act on evidence of the impact of soya on climate change.

"Some will say that it is all a vegetarian conspiracy or similar, designed to stop us eating meat or to put British farmers out of business," he said.

"Rubbish."

Flello told MPs that the production of soya in south America requires high-nitrate fertilisers and weedkillers.

"There are greenhouse gas emissions from both the production of those fertilisers and chemical sprays and their transportation to farms.

"There is also the high energy use involved in harvesting the soya and transporting it halfway round the world to Europe for use in animal feeds."

Flello said farmers in developing nations are being forced off their land by "big-money soya farmers" and weedkillers are killing and injuring local citizens.

However, he faced vigorous opposition to his bill from some on the Tory backbench.

David Nuttall (Con, Bury North) said the bill will leave ministers with "no alternative but to increase the number of rules and the amount of regulation imposed on our nation’s farmers".

Jacob Rees-Mogg (Con, North East Somerset) said the bill is too broadly written.

"It will become justiciable before the courts, and the House will lose power over the detail of regulation to the courts," he said.

Tony Baldry (Con, Banbury) said the key question is whether to have more regulation and more legislation "to achieve a strategic approach to livestock farming", or trust farmers to continue to seek to "improve farming’s environmental impact".

"The ambiguity of the provisions and the confusion of aspiration about what the bill intends may well cause more confusion than constructive engagement," he said.

However, some Conservatives were more positive.

Zac Goldsmith (Con, Richmond Park) said the bill is supported by "a very wide range of farming organisations".

Oliver Heald (Con, North East Hertfordshire) argued that "we should have green fields and farmers tending their livestock, not enormous great sheds, on an industrial scale, absolutely packed full of cattle being fed soya".

Joseph Johnson (Con Orpington) said the" visual beauty" of the countryside is maintained by "the farming practice of grazing".

"If we continue to go down the road that our farming industry has been going down of penning ever greater numbers of cows into industrial sheds to be fed imported soya, we will lose the entire warp and weft of our rural countryside," he told the House.

Kerry McCarthy (Lab, Bristol East) said the UK agricultural sector is moving towards 'mega farms' of "more than 8,000 cows indoors practically throughout the year".

Farming minister Jim Paice said the government would not support the bill but backed a conference with the participation of the devolved administrations to discuss the issues.

He also pointed out that the "vast majority" of soya bean meal is fed to pigs and poultry, not to grazing livestock.

"If we are going to discuss that issue we need to recognise that if we do not import such meal, we will not have any pigmeat or poultry meat," he said.

Flello's bill did not receive the support of enough MPs to progress any further.

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