Lord of the farms

READ some of what he's supposed to have said in the national press and you could be forgiven for thinking that Lord Haskins, the man appointed by Tony Blair to spearhead recovery in the areas worst affected by foot and mouth, must be the small farmers' public enemy number one.

The vast subsidies given to Britain's farmers through the Common Agricultural Policy have encouraged fraud, he is reported to have said. Larger farms could be more environmentally friendly than smaller ones - and anyway, the days of the small farmer are numbered: he is a dying breed.

Hardly the man, you'd have thought, to be charged with helping small farmers reeling from the effects of foot and mouth begin to find their feet again.

So what kind of person is this Dublin-born chairman of Hull-based Northern Foods, who lives on a 900-acre arable farm at Skidby near Cottingham in East Yorkshire? Over the telephone, it can be hard to judge; but you can often tell a lot about somebody from the people with whom they surround themselves.

His personal assistant Kathryn Vessey could not have been more friendly and helpful when I rang to see if I could arrange an interview - and when I mentioned this to Lord Haskins once he called back, he was clearly pleased. It was hard not to like him.

The job he has been asked to do by Tony Blair is to find ways of helping the areas worst hit by foot and mouth to recover. His main focus will be Cumbria, but he will be turning his attention to North Yorkshire too in a couple of weeks.

Does he feel he is qualified for the job?

Tony Blair asked him to do it, he points out - he didn't apply for the job. But he comes from a farming family and he does help out on the farm at home occasionally - though it's mainly run by his eldest son.

"I'll be going home this evening to sit on the tractor," he says. "And I feed the cattle every weekend! Plus, I've worked on agriculture for previous governments - I worked for John Gummer and William Waldegrave on reforming the Common Agricultural Policy. So I think I know a bit." He has had nothing but goodwill from the farmers in Cumbria he has met so far, he points out, which augurs well. "Perhaps the fact I come from a farming background and understand what their problems have been is a help."

Those problems - in Cumbria in particular, but to a lesser extent in North Yorkshire - are desperate.

Lord Haskins has spent a lot of time in Cumbria meeting farmers, local government officials, and those involved in the tourist and service industries since being appointed to the job of Rural Recovery Co-ordinator on August 3.

He says many people are in a dire situation - and with the disease lingering on, it is getting worse.

Much of the relief funding handed out to farmers and others in the stricken areas was based on the assumption that the outbreak would be over by June or July, he says - meaning that many desperate farmers and small businesses are running out of money.

One of the recommendations he plans to make to Government is that relief funding should be renewed. He also intends to look closely at restrictions on movement, both of animals and people: which will be good news for the beleaguered tourist industry in foot and mouth areas.

"The restrictions are there for a very good reason," he says. "But it may be that some of those restrictions can be lifted. Most of the spread of this disease has been from animal to animal or from farm vehicles. There is no evidence at all that it has been spread by ramblers. East Yorkshire has had no disease at all, and yet we were completely closed down until four weeks ago. I thought that was bloody stupid, frankly."

Nevertheless, it's important to be careful, he says - and the speed with which restrictions can be lifted will depend on the continuing virulence of the disease. "If it goes away, we can do something."

For the time-being, in areas such as Cumbria and North Yorkshire, he is very much in favour of the tight bio-security restrictions that have been put in place. Some of the stories told about farmers failing to disinfect vehicles properly, or attempting to sell livestock at market without obtaining licences first, are 'extraordinary', he says.

But he stresses it is only a tiny minority of farmers who have been breaking the rules. "Most are very responsible. Lots of farmers have told me how upset they have been by the behaviour of some others."

He won't comment on suggestions the Government may have been responsible for leaking stories about farmers breaking rules or claiming too much compensation to divert public anger over the handling of the disease away from themselves and on to farmers.

But he makes it clear he doesn't agree farmers have been greedy over compensation.

Valuation of stock has been difficult, he admits, because the unusual circumstances have made the value of livestock uncertain.

But farmers are entitled to compensation by EU law, and it is right that they should get it.

None of this sounds much like the combative, anti-compensation hardliner portrayed in some of the media. And clearly, despite some of what has been said about him, the Labour peer is not anti-farmer - even anti small farmer - at all.

He still thinks the nature of farming is going to have to change. Despite what he may be able to do in the short term, there is little in his view of the future of British farming that will bring comfort to the small farmer in the long term.

He admits he believes that many small farms are going to die out.

In an increasingly technological world, dominated by supermarkets and big business, small farms are no longer economic.

The average age of British farmers is about 60, he points out. And with plenty of attractive jobs available in nearby towns and cities, many of the younger generation are not going to want to carry on where their parents left off.

"The number of farms and farmers has been reducing worldwide for the last 100 years," he says. And I don't see that trend changing."

He doesn't necessarily think that is a good thing.

He insists he never said that large farms were more environmentally friendly than smaller ones - merely that they were more environmentally friendly than many people thought.

He would, in fact, like to see the Common Agricultural Policy reformed so a bigger proportion of subsidy is channelled towards smaller farms and ones which use organic or environmentally friendly methods of production.

But it is clear he believes change is inevitable. The small farmer has had his day.

And sadly, for many small farmers in areas worst hit by foot and mouth, it is clear he feels the disease could prove to have been the last straw.

"Some will go back to the way they were before," he says.

"But a farmer in his 60s who has lost his stock, is he going to re-stock? Probably not."

Updated: 11:40 Friday, August 24, 2001