When I introduced myself to Michael Gove at the Oxford Farming Conference, ready to launch into an incisive question, he immediately said, “Yes, I know who you are.” And it was quite disarming.
I’m not going to pretend for a moment he was telling the truth. Much as I’d like to think he waits avidly each month for the Defra copy of CPM to appear on his desk so he can rip open its cover and devour the insightful and enlightening editorial that lies within, I have several hats I’d gladly chew through if that was in fact the case.
What’s more, he’s not a man known for his integrity – I think Boris Johnson would probably back me up on that one. Trustworthy is not a word you’d associate with Mr Gove, either, but it’s almost for that reason you kind of admire him.
Shrewd and razor-sharp are two expressions that seem to fit. Along with all the alarm bells those words ring, they suggest a politician who knows how to do their job, and this brings me back to the introduction. Anyone who’s heard Michael Gove being interviewed on BBC’s Today programme will probably have marvelled at the way he deftly handles the questions and takes control of the interview, leaving Nick Robinson stumbling and grasping.
The same happened to me. Having been put completely off pace by his remark (and that was probably its purpose), I mumbled through my question about uncertainty…Brexit…plans…how? To which he delivered a superbly succinct answer that was so complete and politically watertight I’m not even going to bother to give it page space.
And the same happened on the conference floor. He gave real answers to the questions asked. Not just that, there was real substance in the address he gave.
It’s been a long time coming – there’s been a succession of farming ministers who’ve failed miserably to engage the farming audience. Since 23 June 2016, the industry has yearned for some direction for what a post-Brexit farming policy will look like.
Well now Mr Gove has put meat on the bones. We may not all like his vision of a Green Brexit. There’s also the question, again, of trust – despite all his reassurances on following a risk-based, scientific approach, the industry should prepare itself for a shafting on neonics, for example, and we’ll probably find Mr Gove its chief architect.
It was also clear from the contributions at Oxford from the EU and the US that, for all Mr Gove’s ambitious talk, the UK is in for a tough time in trade negotiations. His proposed “gold-standard metric” is a nice idea, but it’s going to look laughably quaint when Liam Fox and his team face the full force of US and EU negotiators.
But it’s nevertheless a strong vision that every farmer and every food business can now plan around. It’s also being delivered by a man who engenders confidence in that vision, and that’s what you need from a leader when you’re passing into a period of uncertainty, whether you trust him or not.
Of course, he may well not be around to see that vision through. At the next Oxford Farming Conference, he could be heading a different department, a backbench opposition MP, or even Prime Minister. But by then, the industry should have made progress by itself, will be leading its own plan, and won’t need the political shrewdness of Mr Gove.
What’s new?
Like every team of journalists, there’s nothing we at CPM like more than to deliver something that’s new. We’re a monthly, so I’d hesitate to call it ‘News’, but when a new idea comes along, one thing we relish is to look into it, ask the searching questions and find out whether it really does have merit.
There’s never been a more exciting time to look at these innovations, because they’re coming fast and full throttle. Just look at the LAMP technology being used to monitor septoria, for example, or the new ideas that got Innovation awards at LAMMA and the arrival of robots in the Machinery section.
To herald the dawn of this new age we now have a whole section of CPM dedicated to Innovations, and fronting this up is exciting news about the launch of a satellite-based digital agronomy service.
Look out for new ideas floated by CPM on the web and on Twitter, too – sign up to our eshot by sending an email to angus@cpm-magazine.co.uk, and follow @cpm_magazine. There’s a lot that goes on, and a lot claims to be new. So we’ll only give you a nudge if we think it’s something worth looking at, and you can trust us to sort the science fact from the science fiction.
Tom Allen-Stevens has a 170ha arable farm in Oxon, and potentially palatable hats include a branded baseball cap and tweed flat cap. @tomallenstevens
