As things stand now, any Tom, Dick or Harry can purchase land and start to farm. In a bureaucratic age, this seems quite refreshing but in reality should we as an industry take a step back to consider whether this is appropriate?

Compare farming with other professions and you realise that we have been left behind in terms of professional accreditation requirements and skills quality assurance. If you ever fancied being a plumber or an electrician, you will appreciate the paperwork required before carrying out jobs.

Despite the additional paperwork hassle, it’s recognised within the building trade that these quality systems have contributed towards eradicating rogue tradesmen.

Similarly, if you wanted to sell your house, you would probably these days ensure the estate agent meets certain criteria as you would when booking your holiday with a travel agent.

But when it comes to managing one of our most precious resources, land, and feeding the nation with safe nutritional food, there are no basic checks in place to ensure the farmer is up to the job.

Ensuring good understanding of animal welfare alone should be sufficient reason to consider a “ticket to farm” system. Livestock farming is not about keeping pets, but rather about providing the best possible environment and care for animals to efficiently produce safe food for people.

Such a system may have other less obvious benefits. Having a minimum skill requirement as a profession may make farming a more attractive career option to young farmers. Farming could regain some respect on the back of a well thought out accreditation scheme.

With land being snapped up by non-farmers, it may be possible to build a system where it would be a pre-requisite to have a recognised profession badge before you were allowed to farm the land? Could this potentially regain some strength for farmers in the land market?

A system could be operated on a voluntary basis initially and I would be confident that only the very worst practitioners would face serious compliance problems.

I’m not convinced either way at the moment, but the more time I think about the concept, the more merit it has for an open and frank discussion led by those active in the agriculture sector, and not anybody else. This could be an industry led initiative to upskill and ensure only the competent are given the important role of utilising land and animals for food and energy production.

I’m confident that the possible gains of designing our own accreditation scheme out-weighs the threats of leaving it to somebody else to drive forward with an ulterior motive.

It is with these types of ideas and concepts in mind that I’m today launching a dedicated on-line forum on Madryn’s website for the agriculture industry to discuss a range of topical issues.

Collectively, we store an impressive amount of knowledge and experience that can and should be shared with one and other. Online technology allows us to come closer together to achieve this, so please take some time to click on ‘discuss’ or ‘fforwm trafod’ at www.madryn.co.uk and register to participate.

History was once described to me as a “study of change” and how those changes have subsequently shaped our world.

For change to happen, one opposite ideology must give to another. The struggle between two opposite forces may happen over a period of years or even decades, but it is when a critical mass of people or power converts to a new way of thinking that we see change at it’s most powerful.

There are many polarised battles of ideologies in Welsh farming today that will ultimately affect our future direction.

Conservationists and industrialists have squared up to each other for years, with one fearing the other will restrict its ability to achieve its goals.

This struggle is a good example of where the debate can swing from one side to another and co-exist. One side is always going to have a stronger momentum, but neither is likely to claim a complete victory in the years ahead.

Conservation has in many ways won over the heart and mind of policy makers and the general public. Ask Jo Bloggs on the street what he/she thinks is the role of the countryside, and the answer is likely to include reference to wildlife and the environment before food production.

With food inflation hitting record highs, and unprecedented global population growth, we may well see the industrialists gaining ground in years to come. Greater emphasis on production may well release some of the bureaucratic shackles we have to navigate these days, and provide better prospect for farmers to develop prosperous businesses.

Free marketers and protectionists continue to cross swords across European negotiating tables. We are certainly moving towards a free market for agricultural products in Europe, but there are signs that emerging powers such as China are committed to underpin their agricultural sectors with large Government handouts.

I agree that we should aim for a free market as our long-term goal, but in the meantime we will need to train our industry with the appropriate skills of marketing in a free market environment. Unless we as producers can master the art of marketing, something that production subsidies made unnecessary, then we may risk leaving the door open for others to take the jam. Those others include supermarkets!

I often come across arguments between inward pessimists who look no further than their own square mile and outward optimists who see the global context and all the opportunities that lie ahead for agriculture.

For too many years, the pessimists have been holding their ground, but I sense the optimist might have their day in the coming years. It’s difficult being an optimistic sheep or beef farmer at the moment, but the recent price hikes in milk and grain shows how quickly things can change around.

It is the battle between ideologies like these that will shape our industry, and as business owners we need to keep a watchful eye on what forces are winning the day. Wherever you fit on the spectrum of conflicting ideologies, let me quote you a famous extraterrestrial superhero, “let the force be with you.”

Whilst the ‘Green Revolution’ pushed yields far beyond previous parameters, there is mounting evidence that its after-effect will have a nasty sting in the tail for many decades to come. Western populations are in reality more blighted with diseases and ill health than they have ever been.

Doctors routinely jot down a disease of some sort as the cause of death on certificates, but how many of us actually take a step back to think what was the root cause of that medical condition?

Diseases, cancer or system failures are usually a symptom, not the actual cause of death. Smoking, excessive drinking or drug abuse occasionally play a major part, and as society we are quite good in spotting these.

However, we are terribly ignorance of the role of food in our well-being. This is why I believe the solution for improved health is in the hands of agriculturalists and not pharmaceutical conglomerates.

We may be well fed, but there are plenty of scientific papers showing how under-nourished we have become despite our wealth and prosperity.

In my last column, I briefly touched on a revolutionary development in the United States where companies have begun measuring the nutrient content of food.

It baffles me to think why this hasn’t been done before. If we bought a car, we know from looking at it that it will take us from ‘A’ to ‘B,’ in the same way we instinctively know if something is edible.

As responsible consumers we will usually check a car’s MPG, CO2 emission, safety features, 0-60, likely depreciation and all kinds of other technical features before purchasing.

When it comes to shopping for meat, fruit, vegetables or eggs, we know little about their true nutritional quality. But there is a simple way of assuring top nutritional quality.

A hand-held device called a Brix Refractometer can be used to measure the nutritional quality of food. Already used in the wine industry to measure the potential of grape juice for fermentation, the tool simply measures the density of liquids. Sap from any plant material can be measured.

A Brix reading indicates the concentration of sugars, which in turn correlates with a range of valuable materials including amino acids, proteins, minerals and phytonutrients.

For meat and milk, the test applies to the grass swards used to feed. If the grass is nutritious, so will the animal products.

These are just the kind of innovations Welsh farming should grasp. Customers would receive more value for money if they only bought food with excellent Brix scores. Producers in turn would be awarded for producing nutritionally dense food.

Good Brix scores is a win-win situation.

Good soil management and sustainable methods of farming is a must to achieve high scores. Pests are far more likely to attack low Brix plants. Healthier crops can withstand disease pressures far better.

High Brix products will allow retailers to offer customers premium products that will also stay fresher for a longer period of time. To cap it all, high Brix food will lead to healthier people and a more vibrant economy.

www.madryn.co.uk

Food has never been so relatively cheap. A typical household spends less than 10% of its income on food, and many scupper much more on DVDs, CDs and designer wear in a week than they will on decent food for a month.

Our nutrition has become a nuisance necessity. Eating good food doesn’t make us cool, and having a perfectly manicured garden and a brand spanking new BMW will be much more effective in keeping up with the Jones’.

People’s attitudes towards food worries me. Money spent on good nutritious food is money invested in our own health and happiness, but not a lot see it that way.

Eating for the majority has become a daily ritual which should be done as cheap as possible. I realise that many live on the breadline, but many who claim to be in that position also manage to maintain their expenditure on home entertainment, clothes and holidays.

I will never resent people for spending money on what they want. What frustrates me is the failure to educate people on healthy eating, which doesn’t necessarily have to be more expensive. Food hooliganism needs to be addressed on all levels.

I was very glad to see the Assembly launching a comprehensive consultation and debate into healthy eating. Now that the political dust is settling down at Cardiff Bay, our politicians need to take bold steps in ensuring each of us give our food the proper respect it deserves.

Education has to be at the forefront. I want to eradicate silly questions such as “which cow produces skim milk” or “why potatoes are stored in soil.”

A slightly more radical idea worthy of consideration is to reward producers for good nutritious food. Price structures currently favour the intensive high yielding producer, but if value was based on nutrition density, farmers would soon adapt their systems accordingly.

Study after study has shown a decline in the nutritional quality of food since the early parts of the last century. But as I recently uncovered, some food producers and retailers in America have now begun to grade and price all kinds of produce on nutritional density. We have the technology to do this.

The push for better eating offers a sound future for Welsh farming. We have the soils and skills to produce good food. Whilst the green credentials of local food might not be clear-cut, there is no doubt that its freshness means a better nutritional content.

We may have put man on the moon, but we’re shamefully poor on understanding our nutrition. Researchers need more funds to explore, as it is this type of work that will really boost the nation’s health.

One rather disturbing study suggested that a high incident of disease in a family line could be explained by the tendency of families to follow similar diets rather than their weak gene pool. As one dietician told me, “genes loads the gun, but it’s our food that pulls the trigger.”

Despite our lack of knowledge, we can’t go far wrong in choosing a balanced and varied diet of fresh quality food. Iechyd da!

Targets come in all shapes and sizes. They may be financial or chronological. I need to finish this column within the next hour! Or they can be sport orientated or based on acquiring skills.

Setting goals can in fact be a soothing experience. By knowing where you’re going, you are more likely to feel relaxed about making key decisions.

Two years ago I gave myself a list of business targets. Within three years I wanted to establish my own consultancy company, a food processing and marketing firm and a retail business.

These ‘secondary’ targets derived from my over-arching objective, which is to have a commercial presence along the whole agri-food chain whilst optimising the benefits for the local economy.

If I hadn’t written these down, albeit on a tatty piece of paper adhered to my desk with ‘blu tack,’ I genuinely believe that I wouldn’t have taken the necessary steps to reach them.

Running a business is like taking a journey. Unless you know where you’re aiming to be, how the hell will you know what route to take? Even a ‘TomTom’ can’t work without the user giving it a target.

Targets don’t have to be prescriptive. A simple statement of intent can be sufficient to give a business the focus it needs to move forward.

Plodding along waiting for things to happen is risky. Of course, businesses need to be able to react, but at the same time, businesses need to be proactive in carving out their own future.

Many small businesses run the risk of disregarding targets or are managed by 2 or 3 individuals with contradicting aims, bound to create friction and tension. Before any business can really propel, all it owners and staff need to agree and believe in what they’re aiming for.

Once a target is set, making a deal with yourself to achieve it is critical. Politicians and civil servants may influence the playing arena, but how we play is up to us and nobody else.

Farming is an excellent playing arena to be in. Conditions are always changing, and whilst there is change there will be opportunities.

Later this month will see the publication of the ‘Sustainable Farming and Agriculture: Action Towards 2020’ report by the task to finish group established by the Welsh Assembly 12 months ago. In it will be a vision for Welsh farming for the years ahead.

This will be one document definitely worth taking notice of, as it will tell us the shape of agricultural policies to come. Take note of it, and if necessary adapt your own target.

In a strange coincidence, Tesco in partnership with Unilever published their 2020 vision a few weeks ago. By identifying socio-economic conditions, technological capacities and likely retail structure by the year 2020, these huge conglomerates are already planning 15 years down the line.

Earlier this summer, I managed to complete my trio of targets. Together with my brothers, we bought a delicatessen in Pwllheli. By the way, I can assure you that small-scale retailing is as difficult as farming.

Time has now come for a new set of targets.

www.madryn.co.uk

Friday evening’s news came as a shock to all of us, rekindling uncomfortable memories of the 2001 outbreak.

Fearing the worst, farms across the UK have been holding their breath in anticipation of further developments in this incredible incident in Surrey.

Contrary to the 2001 response, the Government along with the authorities appear to have moved swiftly to minimise the impact and spread of the disease. All in all, the hard lessons learnt last time around has paid dividends in these critical first days.

However, controlling a seriously contagious disease is going to be extremely challenging. With the very few exceptions, mainly involving rogue lorry drivers, the industry has responded very well. To be fair, if agriculture is to retain it’s respect and markets, adhering to the precautions is the only option.

Inquiries into the source of the outbreak seem to be focused entirely on the nearby laboratories at the moment. No doubt, the ramifications of this if proofed correct will be immense.

It will also raise some awkward questions. Why for example is the molecular detective work on the source being carried out by scientists working for the very institutions under suspicion for releasing the virus? Is it right that Merial, the American pharmaceutical company based at the labs is busy producing 300,000 vaccine units ordered by the Government as a precaution if it decides to proceed with vaccination?

Following the 2001 outbreak, the Royal Society concluded in its report that occasional outbreaks in Europe have been associated with vaccine plants or laboratories.

Whether the labs are responsible or not, the outbreak has once again highlighted the issue of importing meat from countries where FMD is common.

Whilst the Unions should and will continue to fight against this, the industry needs to really drive home the benefits of local food. If the outbreak has shown anything, it has shown to the public that the UK livestock industry is thoroughly professional and responsible in ensuring that meat and milk products is absolutely safe to consume.

Local food is not only about food miles as I’ve said several times in this column. It’s equally about having traceable food from trustworthy producers and supporting the local economy, which will be critical over the next few months. Let make sure we get these messages across to our customers.

We can all improve our food procurement styles. I know of too many who continue to purchase meat without checking its provenance. I know of too many Welsh companies and organisations that could improve their support for local food.

If public organisations are putting on a meal or buffet, why not stipulate that the meat and cheese is at least Welsh? I would go as far as to say that the wine, water and potatoes should also be Welsh as these can be supplied all year round as well.

Poor summer weather was already making farming difficult this year. It’s not only farmers who are affected as abattoirs, auctions and haulage workers can vouch.

The Assembly’s Senior Veterinary Officer, Dr Christianne Glossop probably thinks what’s next round the corner following the summer of discontent at Skanda Vale and now a full blown FMD outbreak.

Let hope the next steps will become clearer over the next few days.

www.madryn.co.uk

Titled ‘First one there’, the pure bronze sculpture captures a magic moment. Four bright eyed children running their socks off against each other to reach a destination first.

‘I thought you were saving up for a house,’ my friend muttered. He’s right, but putting £3,000 per annum in an ISA makes watching the paint dry thoroughly stimulating.

Rightly or wrongly, I think buying art wisely is a much better investment. If push comes to shove, I’ll be able to sell my four new friends for a tidy return. In the meantime my eyes will glance to the corner of my office where it sits proudly oozing inspiration.

The four young souls embody what we should all strive for.

Somewhere along the teenage years, we tend to lose that gift of unashamed drive to do things, to be the first to cross the line. We get hijacked by the fear of failure. The notion of ‘better be safe than sorry’ takes over.

And it prevails in us the Cymry more than any other nation I know of. We’re all born with entrepreneurial skills, but we forget how to use them by the time we reach adulthood.

Entrepreneurship is simply having the ability and motivation to realise ideas. It doesn’t mean taking huge financial risks or having the persona of Alan Sugar. It’s about having the creativity to work things out and the ambition to see things happen.

Agricultural entrepreneurship has had a bad run, shackled for decades by land subsidies. With the demise of production grants, I think we could see a renaissance of rural entrepreneurs in Wales.

Opportunities abound. The race is on to establish the first vineyard on the Llyn and the first camel trekking business in Eryri. Is there anybody milking sheep in north Wales yet, despite the increasing demand for sheep milk? And who’ll be the first to grow malting barley for one of the many microbreweries dotted in north Wales gasping for local malt?

Consumers are eager to use renewable energy and farmers are talking about its potential. The time has come to establish major biofuel and biomass businesses in Wales. I was glad to hear that the first large scale on-farm biofuel plant in north Wales should be up and running by the end of 2007.

Like the children in the sculpture, we need to find our inner drive. Our thirst to be the first could be the catalyst to free the entrepreneur trapped inside all of us.

Being the first is not always a sign of progress however. The first supermarket to open in a town or the first holiday home in a rural hamlet is often a sign of deterioration.

Ensuring more good firsts can reduce the bad firsts. There is a much better chance for local entrepreneurs to respect their area, so let make sure that we start doing things the way we want to see them.
______________________________________

Having just completed my monthly Daily Post column, I turn my head to the corner. ‘Diolch yn fawr’ I said to the sculpture. I wonder what he’ll help me with next?

Having concluded last month that we are over fed and under nourished as a nation, I would like to explore how Welsh farming could turn this negative into a positive.

Ask any food marketeer about the main drivers in today’s food industry, and they are bound to list health as one of the top three.

Go back 5 years ago, and most of us would be satisfied with just cutting down on salt and throwing the deep fat fryer away.

Today however, celebrities such as Dr Gillian McKeith and programmes like ‘Kill it, Cook it, Eat it’ have equipped consumers with more knowledge than ever before about their food. More and more people are ready to invest in their health through better eating, and are looking at the agri-food industry for answers.

This should be music to our ears. With 60% of British consumers now classified as ‘foodies’ willing to pay more for good food, we literally have millions of mouths on our doorstep waiting to be nourished with good, clean and healthy food.

Farming needs to grasp this opportunity with two hands.

Firstly, our leaders need to start talking about farming as the guardian of the nation’s health. There is no way of ignoring the fundamental connection between soil, food and human health.

Secondly we as an industry need to undergo a major shift in mindset. Rather than rewarding volume, producers need to gain from producing high nutritional quality.

Defining nutritional quality doesn’t have to be complicated. A simple handheld instrument called the Brix reflectometer can measure the nutritious quality of any food item within seconds.

A sap sample from any vegetable or fruit can be recorded. For livestock, pastures could be Brix monitored to ensure quality milk and meat.

Welsh farming or possibly a group of Welsh producers could be among the first in the world to set a minimum Brix level for their produce, providing consumers with the guarantee of top quality nutrition.

Politicians have long aspired for a knowledge based economy in Wales. Here’s one way this could be achieved within farming.

But unless they support our deprived R&D institutions, our source of indigenous ground breaking knowledge will gradually diminish and so will our ability to compete.

To finish, I must refer to what should excite most livestock farmers in Wales.

Grass fed animals are the healthiest according to an ever increasing body of research. And what do we produce best in Wales?

Milk and meat from grass fed cattle for example have better omega-3 to omega-6 ratio, higher levels of conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), higher vitamin E and less fat compared to animals wholly or partly fed with grain.

If you’re saying to yourself right now, ‘well, my animals only eat grass anyway’, then wake up, your product is much more special than you realise!

I fear that we have forgotten that eating is an agricultural act. With the real possibility of our next generation of children having a shorter life expectancy than their parents, it should give us the up most satisfaction to be able to provide people with better health and be paid for it.

Long gone have the days of eating out of necessity. A modern meal is as much an anti-depression tonic as it is a social gathering, with our taste buds governed by the urge to feel good in the short-term.

It’s no coincidence therefore that our health reflects our bad eating habits.

For the last 2 weeks I have been traveling in America studying this very topic. Going to the land of mega obesity and big macs to learn about nutrition felt rather strange at first, but believe it or not, the Americans are waking up to the health calamity that awaits them as a nation.

Out of every 10 people in the USA, 4 will die of cardiovascular disease (heart attack or stroke) and 2 will die of cancer. Recent estimates state that only 1 in 10,000 will die of “old age.” I doubt the figures are much different in Wales.

So why is it that nearly 2,500 years since Hipprocrates observed that “all diseases begin in the gut,” that we insist on abusing our bodies with daily cocktails of laboratory concoctions?

Sickness such as cancer, infections, diabetes and autoimmune diseases are thriving, but to call these “diagnoses” is arbitrary. Treating the diagnosis whilst ignoring the causes makes no sense at all.

It’s wrong to blame sickness on bad genes. Most of us carry a proportion of bad genes, but it’s usually isn’t until they’re exposed to a bad environment that they cause sickness.

As on imminent scientist told me, bad genes load the gun, and bad environment pulls the trigger. The finger on the trigger is usually a bad diet.

So what does this have to do with farming? Everything. Farming feeds and provides people with nutrition.

On top of bad choices we make every day, the nutritional density of food we consume today has deteriorated compared to the food 50 years ago. We have become over fed and under nourished.

In my column next month, I’d like to further explore the implications of this on farming. Feeling like a health guru advocating a change in lifestyle doesn’t sit comfortable with me, so I must finish with a story that pretty much sums up my state of health.

Having spent the first 5 days of my U.S trip with some of the leading health promoting organizations and individuals, I joined them for meals compiled of soups, smoothies, porridge, dandelion coffee and all the other culinary delights found in a health food store.

By the sixth day I was attacked by a severe craving for junk food. No longer could I sustain the sudden change in eating habits, my body was going into shock!

Spoilt for choice, I urgently feasted on a hawaiian pizza, club sandwich and a large serving of fries and cola.

I’m convinced my body was suffering withdrawal symptoms from the addictive chemicals consumed by most modern westerners.

The good news is that we can change this – gradually in my case – and farmers if they choose to be, can be at the forefront of improving the nation’s diet.

The electronic remains of 2006 were as uneventful as the year itself. Let’s hope the May elections sparks off a few decent debates.

My New Year’s pledge to keep track on e-mails has already diminished. Thank goodness I don’t have the paper equivalent cluttering the desk.

How did we communicate before e-mails, or more importantly cope, is a mystery to me. Were our forefathers able to send a carbon copy of a smoke signal or a blind copy of a telegram? And how on Earth would you start arranging on overseas visit?

E-mail has transformed communications forever, but we are yet to come close to the boundaries of electronic technology. The potential benefits for our businesses are of ‘giga’ proportions.

I have recently established two web forums to facilitate technology transfer. The power of forums to speed up knowledge sharing has been astonishing.

In one case, a group of growers have been using a new growing technology. Through virtual discussion forums, they have all been able to learn form each other’s mistakes within a few days.

My next idea is to join the thousands who are already using websites such as YouTube to post video clips. Whilst some of the clips are as mundane as the one on how to spread jam on your toast, there is a library of films on subjects you would never dream of.

Have a go, you’ll be amazed at what you’ll learn from the Argentinean rancher and the Japanese vegetable grower, all whom have left clips teaching others how to do what they do.

In reality, a large proportion of farmers reading my column will have moved on after glancing over my first paragraph. Just the mention of a few soft computer jargons is a sufficient deterrent.

Poor attitude towards learning computer skills is a serious issue for the industry in my opinion, in particular among men. How often have I seen over the last 5 years the farmer having to depend on his wife to handle the computer?

2007 will see the start of the second phase of Objective 1 in Wales. With computer skills and poor Internet connection identified as a serious problem holding back rural areas in Wales, I am confident that the help and support will be on hand for those who wish to catch up with the times.

Computers are not complicated machines designed to drive us up the wall. Used properly, they will save you time and money and open new doors for managing your business.
Government payments will only be issued on-line in a few years time, and most livestock recording systems will only work with a computer.

The internet offers innovative ways of doing business, which farming, to be frank is yet to grasp. How many farmers order their feed or fertiliser on-line? Why doesn’t every farm have a website so that the local community and customers can have the choice to learn more about the business?

Having a John Deere 8530 brushing the roadside every other week would be frowned upon as waste. And so should a PC that only calculates your VAT every quarter.