No surprise from an urban political party.

Nick Herbert, shadow Defra secretary, has been working out figures of changes in the level of UK self-sufficiency in agricultural products during the period of NuLabour rule. His results are dramatic:

In indigenous foods self- sufficiency has fallen - 1998 82% to 2008 73%
The UK Trade gap in food, feed and drink was widened in real terms - 1998- 2007 by 62% (£15.2 billion.)
Under Labour 36,000 hectares of plant land for vegetables have been lost 1997 153,000 to 2008 11600
Land producing fresh fruit has fallen from 36,000 to 28,000 hectares over the same period
The land for cereal growing has fallen from 3,358,000 hectares to 3,274,000

The number of dairy cows has fallen from 2,453,000 to 1,909,000
The number of beef cattle has fallen from 1,811,000 to 1,670,000
The number of pigs has fallen from 7,834,000 to 4,714,000
The sheep and lamb flock has fallen from 43,983,000 to 33,131,000
The number of poultry has fallen from 169, 901,000 to 166,200,000

What else would you expect from a government which clearly has little understanding of rural life (- closure of Post Offices) or values (fox hunting), and has virtually no MPs in rural seats? It has done little to redress the power balance between farmers and supermarkets, and caused many farmers to leave the industry.

Together with the EU it has increased the regulatory burden on farmers, refused to attach British country of origin labels, and been happy to see the decline of an industry in which we were once a world leader. Above all, to promote European solidarity, it has allowed the industry to shrivel.