This is the full text, as delivered, of Bishop Jonathan's maiden speech in the House of Lords.
1. Introduction
My Lords, I am honoured to be a new boy in your Lordships’ House. May I begin by thanking you for your generous and warm welcomes and I am most grateful to the staff of this House for all their help to me in the induction process.
2. Lichfield Diocese
The Diocese of Lichfield, where I serve, contains some of the most deprived urban areas in the country, including Wolverhampton, West Bromwich, Walsall, Burton, Tamworth and Stoke on Trent. But it also contains some of England’s most beautiful rural areas: the Peak District, the Staffordshire Moorlands, the hills and rolling plains of north Shropshire.
3. Urbanisation and Ignorance
When I was a boy you could still sometimes see horses ploughing fields alongside tractors. Rapid mechanisation in our life-time has meant that fewer people live on the land, fewer earn their livings from it and fewer still in wider society are acquainted with the routines and rewards of farming the land.
As many of your Lordships will have done, I decided to test my little granddaughter on her agricultural knowledge recently. She got milk right; she knew it came from cows. But she could not agree with me that potatoes came up through the soil. She knew they came from the supermarket on Camden High Road.
“Give us this day our daily bread” is not an abstract prayer for most people of the world and whilst the effects of climate change will impact hardest on the harvests of the poorest, the fierce weather of the past weeks, reminds us that none of us, even here, will be exempt from the need to cope with a rapidly changing climate.
4. Recession and Resilience
Whilst the last few decades have been tough on most farmers, the agricultural sector has been relatively resilient to the shocks of the recession. Total income from farming rose by 36% in real terms last year. So did income from farming per person. And – whisper it not in Gath—I have even known farmers admit with some embarrassment that, because of the weaker pound, they have done rather well out of the EU recently.
5. New technologies
My Lords, new technologies, as we have heard, are revolutionising agricultural yields. The government has been keen to champion the role of choice in driving up standards in the public services. I am pleased therefore to be able to report to the minister that in Shropshire the principle has been extended also to its bovine inhabitants. The latest carousel for cows – where the cows themselves choose when they want to be milked – has led to a very successful increase in milk yield. Elsewhere I have started to understand the new biomass generator technology being piloted at the Harper Adams University in Shropshire, and I am proud that JCB which started in 1945 in a lock-up garage in Uttoxeter in Staffordshire is now the world’s third largest manufacturer of construction equipment.
6. Dairy Crest and Müller
These success stories have brought companies such as Dairy Crest and Müller to my patch. Müller proudly claim that the milk used in their products comes from within a 30 mile radius of their factory in Market Drayton – so next time you pick up a Müller Light yoghurt you might remember that it originated in a cow grazing peacefully somewhere in my diocese.
7. Dairy farms
The dairy sector, though, has been pretty hard hit. Staffordshire and Shropshire are leading dairy counties and dairy farmers face another decline in UK wholesale milk deliveries in the year ending this August. Dairy farmers continue to suffer from unpredictable swings in milk prices, exacerbated by the large chains undercutting local dairies. Bovine TB continues to take its toll, with the loss of milk sales and the compensation for slaughtered stock lagging well behind stock prices. I also mention with concern the collapse of Dairy Farmers of Britain; the co-op that went into administration in June and took with it the closure of a dairy near Uttoxeter with a loss of 250 jobs.
8. The Church and Community
My lords, as those of us who listen to the Archers know, there are five local facilities that are most highly rated by village people: the pub, the village hall, the Post Office / shop, school and church. Many of your lordships will have seen the research sponsored by DEFRA which says that the churches, as the largest voluntary bodies in our country, play a vital role in community vibrancy. Indeed, for farmers facing the kind of difficulties I have described, the Churches’ Rural Stress Network has been an invaluable support. However, there is some feeling in our villages that lawmakers need to give wider recognition to the contribution of churches and faith based organisations in providing the social glue that holds communities together. My Lords, in that spirit all of us on these benches are grateful that the Floods and Water Management Bill will contain measures to enable water companies to charge lower tariffs for surface water drainage to churches, as well as to scout huts and community halls, which were otherwise facing crippling increases in their water bills. This will enable them to focus on worship and work in the community, rather than fundraising to meet increasing bills. I thank the noble minister that the government has listened and has acted. We now hope that the Bill will make it through into law in the time left available.
9. Food Security
My Lords, none of these issues is without its complexity, and many of them have important moral and spiritual dimensions. In the UK and worldwide it is essential that farmers respond to the issues of climate change and population expansion. In the UK we are fortunate, as the noble Lord Mandelson recently affirmed, to have the knowledge and research bases necessary to meet these new challenges. I look forward to playing my part in the work of your Lordships’ House.
Jonathan Gledhill
House of Lords
24th November 2009