Minutes:
1. The Chairman welcomed the Head of Communications, East Malling Research (EMR), Mr Newham, to the meeting and invited him to give his presentation.
2. Mr Newham gave his presentation using overheads appended to these Minutes and highlighted the following points:
· The challenge was to produce as much food between 2000 and 2050 AD as was produced between 1500 and 2000AD.
· The production of food had to be achieved with a shortage of labour and no extra land available to double the output of energy and fertilisers and a limited water supply.
· The crops produced had risen from 6-7 tonnes per hectares to 8-10 tonnes hectares.
· EMR had received £160 million investment by the government.
· EMR was invited to apply for a Programme Grant (ISPG) for improving the resilience of perennial cropping systems. This was in Partnership with the University of Reading.
· EMR were addressing their requirements and needs by adopting new technologies, attracting international interest and creating employment for 15 additional staff.
3. Mr Newham responded to comments and questions by Members which included the following:
a) Mr Newham advised that some patents for new varieties of fruit were well established and were certificated. This had been achieved through both commercial and public funding.
b) A commercial division was going to be established at EMR.
c) Mr Newham advised that land use policy did not fall in the scope of EMR but did say that the production of more crops would have to be sustainable and would be achieved through innovation.
d) Business spin offs would be developed by the new EMR commercial division.
e) Mr Newham considered that rather than being resistant, farmers had a history of trying new products and working with supermarkets etc and were always trying to do things differently.
f) Mr Newham stated that there were no genetically modified (GM) crops grown in the European Union. However, he advised that modified cotton clothes etc were being worn in this country and EMR used the technology in the laboratory for testing. There were no aims to produce GM crops in this country as consumers in the UK and EU were not ready for this. The benefits for GM food may not be as strong in Europe as they may be for other parts of the world.
g) The Chairman advised that “set aside” was usually in low yielding cropping areas.
h) The limit on production from land was due to how much sunlight there was. There were many things that could be carried out including a reduction of waste through storage. A reduction in gluts [more even distribution] throughout the year.
i) Mr Newham explained that funding was not received directly from DEFRA as the funding went directly to the Technology Strategy Board (TSB) and EMR receive some funding from the TSB. Meetings were held by EMR with DEFRA to discuss issues such as long term storage facilities and continued development.
j) Mr Newham confirmed that there was interest from China in EMR producing fruit crops but help was needed from central government in bring those to fruition.
4. The Cabinet Committee was invited to visit East Malling Research.
5. RESOLVED that:
a) the responses to comments and questions by Members; and
b) the information in the presentation and the invitation to visit EMR be noted with thanks.