Speeches by Zeichner.

“Absolutely I understand why it matters, and it goes to the heart of my and the Secretary of State’s vision for the future: that farmers’ farms are successful businesses. But I also would not want to unfairly criticise other parts of the food chain, whether it be the food manufacturers or the retailers that, in my view,…”

“We will probably come on to the individual sector arrangements that are being made. It is at that level that we can have closer dialogue.”

“Not necessarily; we have very efficient producers in our country.”

“Sitting in these Committee Rooms takes me back to the passage of the Agriculture Act. There was a period of time a few years ago, I think, when there was a sense that somehow food production was not the primary purpose of agriculture. That is why both the Secretary of State and I have been very determined to make the p…”

“I would refer you back to the report, which says, essentially, that we are okay, but we should not be complacent, not least, as I say, because of the geopolitical issues, which are things that we have less control over. But, on each of the measures, we are doing well enough at the moment.”

“I think you will find there have been a lot of debates in this place.”

“The agricultural transition has been a complicated process—again, it came out of the Agriculture Act and represented a move away from the common agricultural policy to a different form of support. These were policies that were introduced by the previous Government, but in opposition I was broadly supportive of many of …”

“I understand the point you are making. What I would just gently say is there is a fairly clear legal system around labelling, and labelling should not be inaccurate. Where it is inaccurate, there is a legal issue. But we are, as you rightly say, looking very closely at the whole issue of labelling and it should always …”

“I am not sure I quite follow the question, but basically it is obviously a market-driven system, so it depends essentially on the relationships within the sector. I am perfectly happy to pay tribute to the Chair and his predecessors for intervening in this a decade ago, introducing the Groceries Code Adjudicator and GS…”

“Not many, in my experience. I do not know the exact number—I would have to go away and find out.”

“That is one of the legacy European Union schemes; we are currently looking at what we would do to replace that. We are in conversation with people on that, but it was a legacy scheme that came to an end.”

“To tax and subsidies?”

“We want to look closely to make sure it provides good value for money. Obviously, decisions that devolved Governments make are their decisions, we do not always take the same decisions.”

“There absolutely is a sense of urgency because that is what we are doing and getting on with. Only in the last few weeks some of the secondary legislation has been laid, and it will go on being laid as we work with the sector. What I would say is that it is very important that we get these things right, because they ar…”

“There is unhappiness, clearly, within the agricultural sector about the way they are sometimes treated. But I would not want to characterise the food system as being anything other than actually, overall, successful. We do have a successful food system in this country. I am trying to choose my words carefully here beca…”

“I suspect that I am going to answer in a similar way on a number of these questions. Some of these issues fall far more within the Department for Business and Trade remit, and that is who the GCA actually is accountable to. But my understanding is the Competition and Markets Authority did do an investigation into super…”

“Whenever you have a situation where there is a strong level of power, there is always the possibility that that is hard for others who are price takers, essentially.”

“No, please do.”

“I understand that, but in the meantime, remember, there are tens of thousands of farmers who are benefiting from these schemes, and we are getting the environmental benefits that they are purchasing. This is a huge change. I do not underestimate how difficult change is. This is a very big transition from one system to …”

“I am very sorry that people missed out, but it is in the nature of a scheme that you bid for that there is no guarantee that you will get it. That needs to be understood for the future. As I say, with the old scheme, that was what it was; just remember, not every farmer got basic payments. That was a scheme where peopl…”