Dame Angela Eagle

Agriculture: Government Support

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Turner, for what I think is the first time in Westminster Hall. I congratulate the hon. Member for Honiton and Sidmouth (Richard Foord)—and his crew, I have to say, after that performance—on securing this debate. I thank all Members who have made contributions. We know that farming matters to every constituency because it not only supports rural jobs and communities but produces the food we rely on and underpins our national resilience. I rec

Agriculture: Government Support

I think I have just said that that is precisely what I want to do. Again, if the hon. Member has any insights that she wishes to share, I am more than happy to hear them. When I visited Harper Adams University recently, I noted that it now has a campus in an urban area. Consequently, people are likely to come across it in a way they were unlikely to come across that venerable old institution’s original building, which of course it still inhabits. That extension of the university into an urban ar

Agriculture: Government Support

I will not get into the decimation of Devon; I will leave that to the hon. Lady. I have clocked the existence of county farms. I think they are a good thing and I have sought some advice on what we can do to support them sensibly, because they are a way for people to get into farming that we should cherish. I have taken a lot of interventions, so I will now press on and say a little about the future vision for farming, because supporting farmers is also about building more profitable businesses

Agriculture: Government Support

It is really important that we try to give a younger generation of people the chances given by access to land so that they can farm. I certainly think that we have not had a look at farming education and the ways into the sector for a very long time. I would certainly like to be able to do that.

Agriculture: Government Support

Let me finish my sentence. I recognise some of the issues that have been raised about the uncertainty around the schemes.

Agriculture: Government Support

Entrance into the industry is a really important issue. Often, it is an issue of access to land to farm at all, and I am certainly thinking very carefully about what we might do with respect to that. If the hon. Lady has any insights from her own constituency, I am happy for her to share them with me, and we can see whether we can deal with the issue of how to get younger people into farming and get them some land to farm. We have allocated a record £11.8 billion to sustainable farming and food

Agriculture: Government Support

I certainly am well aware that the SFI that we have inherited is not particularly well suited to the uplands. That is why we are doing work with Hilary Cottam to see what we can do to provide a different method of support that is much more community based. I recognise the issue that the hon. Gentleman raises about common land, but I would want to see whether we can make some changes to the higher level schemes, which I think are probably more suited to supporting farmers in that kind of setting.

Regulation of the Marmalade Market

There have been no changes to the amount of sugar required for marmalade to be marmalade. If the hon. Member is hinting, as I think she might be, that various nefarious producers are masquerading non-marmalade as actual marmalade in the UK sense of the word, she should probably tell me, or at least tell local authority trading standards officers what is going on in the local area. They can then test to see what spreads or preserves are masquerading as marmalade. I am happy to write to the hon. L

Regulation of the Marmalade Market

I thank the hon. Member for Wells and Mendip Hills (Tessa Munt) for securing this debate and providing an opportunity for me to outline the regulation of the marmalade market. As Paddington Bear wisely reminds us: “A wise bear always keeps a marmalade sandwich in his hat in case of emergency.” As hon. Members may notice, I do not have a hat, and I hope that we do not have an emergency. I certainly do not have a sandwich, so I hope that we will not get into any sticky situations, although I thoug

Publicly Owned Markets: Food Security

Local markets are extremely important, particularly for maintaining food supply locally, and I am very interested in seeing what we can do to assist. Most markets are owned and operated by local authorities. I think the Covent Garden Market Authority is the only wholesale market that the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs still looks after. I recognise the hon. Member’s comments on food security, but this country is 67% self-sufficient in food at the moment, or 77% if one takes o

Publicly Owned Markets: Food Security

It gives a new meaning to the London Irish.

Agricultural Industries: Funding

Rising input costs, including for fertiliser, have contributed to pressure on many farm businesses in recent years. We continually assess how global cost volatility affects farm productivity and the resilience of the sector.

Agricultural Industries: Funding

I would love to—if the hon. Lady’s constituency was in England. Agriculture is a devolved matter, and she must therefore ask the Scottish Government.

Publicly Owned Markets: Food Security

The Government recognise the importance of wholesale markets for the customers and communities they serve. We have limited recent evidence, however, of the impact that public ownership of markets has on food security.

Publicly Owned Markets: Food Security

Mr Speaker, all I can do is express my admiration of the hon. Gentleman’s ingenuity in ensuring that his question is in order.

Good Food Cycle Strategy

I am happy to meet my hon. Friend and congratulate the company he mentions, which is leading the way in this area. We have a major national hub for plant-based, cultivated and fermentation-based research and development, which is at the forefront of progress in this exciting new area.

Publicly Owned Markets: Food Security

We recognise Billingsgate’s importance as a UK distribution hub for fish, and we will continue to monitor the proposed transition closely. We are engaging with the City of London Corporation on the proposed changes.

Good Food Cycle Strategy

The Government’s good food cycle strategy sees alternative proteins as a major opportunity, and not just for the economy but for health, sustainability and food resilience. We are backing the sector and working with the Food Standards Agency on novel food programmes to accelerate precision fermentation technology.