Speeches by Goldsborough.

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Christopher. I refer Members to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests. Around one in five pigs in the country are reared in my part of the world: Norfolk and Suffolk. That means that when we talk about the future of the pig sector, we are not tal…”

“South Norfolk is one of the fastest growing constituencies in the United Kingdom, but that population growth is putting increased pressure on local GP services like the Humbleyard Practice. Given the Government’s ambition to expand neighbourhood health provision, will the Department consider funding a neighbourhood hea…”

“That is an important point that you just talked about, Emily, with the SIC codes, because we have got ourselves into the slightly ridiculous situation of having an SIC code for cut flowers within horticulture but not for anything else. Why have we got to the situation where only cut flowers have been considered?”

“Following on from that point, do you see within the Department that there is 100% parity of esteem between the three aspects of horticulture, or do you see one or two having more of an impact within the sector than the others?”

“Is that a problem with other Departments not wishing to work with DEFRA?”

“Is there anything stopping us from ignoring the international codes and putting in place our own?”

“In your view, what is the greatest barrier in terms of horticultural growth?”

“Do you not think that giving the two largest sectors—environmental and edibles—parity of esteem with agroecological risks undermining profitability within the sector?”

“Good afternoon, Secretary of State. One of the things that we always do is speak in generalities. For my questions we will focus on one sector within agriculture, which is horticulture itself, because it is one of the most productive parts of agriculture in the UK. Some 2% of farmland generates almost 20% of farmgate v…”

“It is extremely concerning for the sector if we go for a labelling approach.”

“Thank you very much. The next aspect that I would like to look at is domestic production and resilience. The United Kingdom, as you said, Secretary of State, still imports about half the vegetables we consume, about 85% of our fruit and a significant proportion of the young plants that underpin both food production and…”

“As the MP who represents the John Innes Centre, the Sainsbury Laboratory and the Earlham Institute among others, I am concerned about precision breeding. It is a huge British advantage that we have going into these negotiations. The memorandum of understanding noted that there would be carve-outs for certain aspects of…”

“Do we need to be careful that we do not think of all horticulture as controlled environment? It will be nigh-on impossible to get purple sprouting broccoli, for example, to be picked anything other than by the human eye and hand. As much as we might want to go for investment in technology, the human aspect of it will s…”

“My final question is about the aspect of inputs towards it. There is a high reliance on foreign labour within the sector. With the visa scheme that is in place, pretty much all the visas will be allocated. They are also allocated at an unusual time of the year for the sector. Going forward, to ensure that profitability…”

“The concern that we have, comparing the legislation framework that the EU is bringing in, is that it is more of an end-user approach rather than the scientific input approach we go for in the United Kingdom. If we end up following that approach, we may not be able to be led by the science and the innovation that comes …”

“My next focus is on the supply chain and the fairness aspect of it. Quite a few of us in this room are in agreement that it is not a fair system. Farmers are, at the end of the day, price-takers, not price-makers. Within horticulture, again, I speak to growers and they tell me that they can absorb the risk from weather…”

“Perfect. Another thing that has been noted before is that you have said you will address the urgent issues in the action plan. What do you identify as urgent and what actions have you already taken?”

“Thank you. My final question is about looking forward. We know there are a couple of things coming down the track that will increase demand for certain vaccines. For example, the one that is on the tip of everyone’s tongue is obviously the bovine TB strategy, where we could see an ambition to deploy the cattle vaccine …”

“Good morning, everyone. I am from the part of the country with 20% of the pig herd, Norfolk and Suffolk, which means that we have been very aware of the acute problems with supply issues when it comes to veterinary vaccines. What can you briefly describe as the main drivers for the shortages we are seeing?”

“Is one of the issues that has caused this post covid the change of focus within the vaccination creation industry? Has that created weaknesses within the UK as well as for surrounding trading partners?”