The Importance of Farming and Food Security

The Importance of Farming and Food Security

By Clive Wakley

It is important that the British Democratic Party (BDP) should not repeat the mistakes of other British nationalist parties in respect of our much beleaguered farming industry and the closely related issue of national food security. One such party in particular, now in terminal decline, failed to formulate anything approaching a comprehensive farming policy despite being in existence for more than thirty years and claiming to be supportive of the British farmer.

The occasional sound bite and supportive sentiment does NOT constitute policy!

The continuing absence of a comprehensive and contemporary nationalist faming policy is an appalling failing that the BDP will rectify. When one considers that over half a million people in this country are directly engaged, either in a full or part-time capacity, in agriculture and that the sector is a multi-billion pound industry, then the urgent need for such a policy becomes apparent.

Furthermore, it should be recognized that the industry represents a significant part of the overall rural employment sector, one that contributes substantially to the maintenance of rural communities throughout the land.

Despite the impressive productivity of our farming industry the fact remains that we have an escalating national food security issue, one that underlines the importance of the farming industry to this country. This is shown quite clearly in government statistics relating to Britain’s growing imbalance of trade in foodstuffs – that is the deficit between food exports and imports.

This stood at £13.5 billion in 2005, £14.3 billion in 2006, £15.2 billion in 2007, £18.3 billion in 2008, £18.5 billion in 2009 and an anticipated £20 billion for 2012.

That’s an imbalance increase of over £11 billion between 1999 and the end of last year; an imbalance resulting directly, and in no small measure, from this country’s immigration driven population explosion.

Furthermore it should not be forgotten that Britain’s agricultural production base supports a complex infrastructure of processing, distribution and retailing.

In fact the value of these closely allied sectors to the national economy is very significant indeed. According to government statistics these sectors between them contribute around £80 billion, whilst employing some 4 million people.

But national food security is about more than just sector economic worth and the number of jobs supported; it’s about having the means to feed the nation in extraordinary times.

Twice during the last century this country of ours was nearly brought to its knees through enemy blockade. During those troubled times the industry was called upon to do the near impossible – feed the nation. That the industry responded magnificently, performed wonders in terms of production, is both a matter of record and pride. That the British farmer and the merchant mariner saved this country twice from defeat is a fact that successive postwar governments have chosen to ignore.

As the bankster created global recession erodes our national economic security the need for national food security becomes ever more urgent. After all, in the event of an economic collapse the nation will still need to be fed. Unlike the banksters and their political sidekicks, the vast majority of the population does not have well stocked boltholes to jet off to.

It should also be recognized that restoring Britain’s food security would be a more formidable task now than it was back in 1939. At least then we had the largest merchant marine in the world, a far larger number of experienced farmers and growers and a far greater acreage of land to put under the plough. The subsequent loss of hundreds of thousands of hectares of arable land to asphalt and concrete to facilitate the needs of postwar immigration fuelled urban sprawl being a handicap that cannot be overstated.

It is important to understand that national food security is a vital component of national security. What value sufficiency in arms in the absence of an adequate supply of foodstuffs?

To state the obvious: the higher a country’s self sufficiency, the lower the likelihood that its food security will be compromised. All of which, in these troubled times, argues for strong domestic production and reinforces the importance of the farming industry to this country.