Another interesting day, this time at the Pennsylvania farm centre for a conference. Most of the speakers talked about US farm policy and the States’ perspective on food production. It was good to see that despite what we might think in Europe, they are taking serious steps to cut emissions and produce food more sustainably.
In the evening we headed over to the Penn State assembly buildings. Coming from titchy Britain, trying to get my head around the scale of US states is proving a bit difficult, so I really wasn’t expecting a building quite like this – even if the state is nearly as big as the UK:
Afterwards we were invited to the governor’s residence for can-apes and locally-produced tipples (I can whole-heartedly recommend the local beer – if anyone knows where I can buy this when I get back to the UK, let me know). The welcome and hospitality we are receiving over here is just phenomenal – I hadn’t realised quite how well-regarded Nuffield Scholars were until we got here, it’s actually very humbling. We’ve been escorted all week by the state’s secretary for Agriculture, Russell Redding. I can’t ever imagine our equivalent at DEFRA ever being so generous with his time or so genuinely interested in our views about the industry.
Anyway, if I thought the parliament buildings were swanky, I hadn’t seen anything yet. Check out the wallpaper in the governor’s living room. I’m definitely taking notes for Stocks Towers:
So tomorrow my Nuffield Adventure begins. I’m heading the whole mile and a half down the road from Chez Stocks to the Farmers Club, where I’ll meet the 20 or so other people from the UK who have been selected as Nuffield Scholars and spend the next three days getting to know them.
I’m excited, but also nervous. While I’d like to think I know a fair bit about the industry and I can’t wait to get going with my study, I’m not a proper farmer – I know I’m going to be in awe of all the people I’m about to meet who run great businesses while I sit in an office trying to write sentences that sound lovely and nice and have no speeling misteaks in them and have all the right grammar and punctuation and stuff like that,
I think my nerves have transferred themselves to my packing – I’ve repacked my suitcase more times than I’d care to remember over the last couple of days. It’s not just that I enjoy folding socks and trying to crease my clothes as much as is humanly possible, I haven’t got clue what to shove in there either.
You see after the London leg of the Nuffield gathering, we’re off to Washington DC to meet scholars from around the world, attend a conference on global agriculture and generally have a smashing time. Having pored over the week’s jam-packed itinerary, its obvious we’re going to be doing some great things. The problem is trying to find a wardrobe which’ll see me through, amongst other things, an ice hockey match, a trip to an Amish farm and dinner at a governor’s residence.
With a bit of luck I’ll be blogging about my escapades over the next ten days so you’ll get to hear about all my wardrobe dilemmas. I’m joking, of course – I’ll just keep it to the shoe issues and maybe I’ll try to squeeze a bit of farming in there if I get time. Bet you’re excited too now, aren’t you…
You haven’t been waiting here since Wednesday night to find out who was crowned NFU vice president have you? Oh dear, I should’ve directed you to NayLo’s website – after all, he’s the place for breaking news, hey Kit Papworth?
In case you don’t know, Gwyn Jones got the nod for the job. Gwyn’s a former NFU dairy board chairman and seems like a good chap – whenever I’ve interviewed him I’ve found him clued-up on his subject and passionate about the industry.
While I like him and I think he’ll be great at the job, I was a little surprised he won. He had some stiff competition, and a few farmers I spoke to at the conference had expressed doubts over whether Gwyn would be a good person to stand in front of a camera and promote farming to the public. This wasn’t because he isn’t intelligent or eloquent, but because (and I quote) “his hair quivers in the wind”.
After he’d been voted in, one mean photographer in the press room was overheard lamenting that he hadn’t brought his wide-angled lens with him to fit the whole of Gwyn’s magnificent mane in shot. Even Gob of the Wash has got in on the act, teasing Gwyn’s peachy ‘do.
It’s got me wondering how important appearances are if you’re trying to get a message across. I think part of Peter Kendall’s success at communicating with the public is because he looks like a normal bloke – he doesn’t really fit the stereotype of a farmer so the public ‘gets’ him. Uncle Meurig always looks dapper in a suit and is quite statesman-like, which gives him an automatic air of authority. There’s nothing about either of them which distracts you when they’re speaking.
Having said that, I like that Gwyn’s got something a bit quirky about him. It’s getting people to talk about him, which can only be a good thing. Would NayLo have blogged about him twice this week if he only had a crew cut? And anyway, if he didn’t have a spectacular hairdo, some meany would only find something else to take the mickey out of…
Oooh the drama – it was just like something from the West Wing.
We followed the ballot boxes to the council room. We stood outside the meeting room’s door to see if we could hear any of the goings on inside. We paced the corridors eagerly waiting for the NFU council member to emerge with the news of who was the union’s new president.
Then I nipped to the toilet and managed to miss everything.
I have a horrible feeling that something very similar happened in a Bridget Jones film. For the record, I’d just like to say I’m not as clueless as her, nor am I wearing giant pants.
Anyway, I managed to keep my legs crossed for the vice president announcement and even won the press room race to be the first to tweet the news *punches air and does little dance* (I realise that’s a sad thing to be excited about, but not seeing daylight for two days does strange things to you…).
I think it’s the right move – Peter’s a great face for agriculture, he can speak eloquently and passionately about the industry and gets messages across to the wider public well. Meurig is a good, steady side-kick too – he’s John Prescott to Peter’s Tony Blair (without the philandering and punching of journalists, I hope).
Just the vice post to fill now. I may burst with excitement.
This must be how catholics felt when they were waiting for the next Pope to be announced after John Paul II popped his clogs.
Not that NFU president Peter Kendall has keeled over or anything, but the union’s AGM is underway, which means in about half an hour the vote to elect a new president will begin.
I won’t go into the whole intricacies of how the voting works – you can read about that here – but we could be in for a long night. NFU conference gossip over the past couple of days suggests Peter is going to keep his title, but the jury’s out over whether Uncle Meurig Raymond will lose his deputy president post to Gwyn ‘the hair’ Jones.
There are so many people going for the vice presidency job that I wouldn’t even like to take a punt. I’m too much of a wimp for that.
I’m not sure how the vote’s going to be announced – I’m hoping there’s going to be some smoke signals coming from the AGM room once the decision’s been made.
He made it through his speech in one piece and even got a smattering of applause, but then the audience questions started. I’ve heard his response to criticism of his bovine TB policy so many times I can recite it in my sleep. But this time he seemed a bit sharper in his defence – he quickly slipped from charmer to politician mode as he picked apart one farmer’s claims about TB eradication and left the poor chap fumbling for words and red in the face.
Hils must know he’s lost the vote of farmers. This was no doubt the last time he’ll address the NFU conference and he’s probably in the twilight of his DEFRA career before he’s shuffled elsewhere post-general election. But he clearly thinks he made a right and balanced decision. He could’ve just stuck to being charming in an attempt to win round a few voters, but he wanted to argue his case to show he hadn’t just taken the easy route during his time at DEFRA and pandered to the public. Whether I agree with him on TB or not, I think better of him for it.
If the response to the speakers who followed Hils is anything to go by though, I can make a pretty good guess of who’s going to come out on top at the general election.
Shadow farm minister Nick Herbert’s crappy opening joke actually got laughed at, while his speech was twice interrupted with applause.
Meanwhile during his speech, poor old Tim Farron from the Lib Dems got upstaged in the press room by some idle chat over a few sandwiches and sausages on sticks:
I’m at the Hilton hotel in Birmingham at the moment for the NFU conference. It’s the third time I’ve been to it and I’m wondering if this year is proof I’ve finally made it in the world.
For the first time ever my hotel room is actually in the main hotel block, is bigger than a postage stamp and is overlooking the car park (I realise this doesn’t sound exciting, but compared to previous views, it’s amazing).
Unfortunately, being in the main block means to get to the hotel’s gym you have to cross the main foyer and walk right past the bar. I didn’t realise this until I had got downstairs, clad entirely in Lycra, looking like a cross between Rosemary Connelly and Vanessa Feltz.
Sadly, despite attempts at stealth, I timed my dash across the reception area with the arrival of a busload of NFU members from Wales. My efforts at dashing were obviously pretty rubbish too – I was still in earshot when the sniggering started.
There’s been a few articles in the press over the past few days accusing the organic lobby of being elitist and expensive, so to counter the claim the Soil Association spared no expense and made us gather in a pig shed beneath some railway arches.
Despite the crummy location it was an interesting day (sitting on the floor of a nearby cinema to use its wireless internet to file stories added to the interest), which I can’t often say about industry conferences.
While some of it was preaching to the converted – and it’s always a big yawn to hear politicians agreeing with each other – the debate between NFU president Peter Kendall, Cambridgeshire gob Oliver Walston and Patrick Holden from the Soil Association was bloomin’ brilliant.
Only Oliver could come out with the line: “I use fertiliser on my farm, but Patrick uses bullsh*t”, call everyone in the shed “nutcases” and expect to leave without being belted ’round the head with an organically-grown leek.
Gob of the Wash reckons Oliver should play Widow Twanky in a panto, but he’s doing a much better job playing a baddie – and the organic bunch loved everything he said. Interestingly though, my Tweets about Oliver’s lines got retweeted the most by the non-organic lot, as well as by non-farming types too.
