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Natural Environment and Rural Communities Bill

I listened with interest to what the Minister said about the Government’s thinking in the direction of a single levy board. I also noted the idea advanced by the noble Baroness, Lady Miller of Chilthorne Domer, that rural development agencies might have a major role in defending primary producers. May I ask the Minister and his colleagues to give serious and deep consideration to redressing the extreme purchasing power of supermarkets in relation to agricultural and horticultural produce of all kinds when they consider the future organisational set-up? Will they at least be aware of the possibility of further concentration in the supermarket system, and will they bear in mind the very serious consequences—I declare my own interest as a surviving milk producer—of the demise of the former Milk Marketing Board, which used to give significant protection to small, individual producers dispersed throughout the country? We have been suffering ever since from the destruction and dissolution of that body, and we have all felt the lack of manufacturing capacity, which in the old days used to be able to take large quantities of milk off the liquid market when desirable and produce saleable products from that commodity. Given that wider consideration, which I think will involve all Ministers, these are really rather important factors.