If you do so on a regular basis, I can only assume that you drive one of those open-top vintage cars, wearing a tweed car jacket, a flat cap back to front and a set of flying goggles to keep the insects out of your eyes.
And you probably also expect the RAC patrolmen to salute you as you drive past.
But for the rest of us, let’s face it, we all use Google Maps, what3words or the car satnav to get us to where we want to go, and blindly follow the instructions of the mellifluous voice which guides us unthinkingly to our destination (or someplace close to it…).
Now, I have a wonderful old foldout touring map from the 1920s or thereabouts of The Southern Highlands, printed on linen which is beautiful to look at and a joy to behold (although a bit of a b****r to fold) – but I’d hate to have to use it to navigate my way to any place.
The quaint typography and the italicised place names often obscure part of the roads, many of which no longer exist as new A roads (and sometimes even the odd bit of dual carriageway) have blitzed their way through many of the twisting, winding byways of that date.
No way of telling
Of course, maps like these have no way of telling you just where there’s likely to be a hold-up on the road, or where the inevitable two-mile tailback is following that extra-wide load as it heads northwards.
Nor does it give you ratings for the food stop-offs on the way, when service stations are open, or the opening times or entry fees of any local attractions on, or near, the route.
I guess that we might pretty much all be in agreement that road maps are a bit old tech – and our ongoing experience and love affair with our tractors’ satellite-controlled auto-steer and signal correction setups means we’ve all come to expect all this new technology to be a much better option when navigating our way either around our own fields or to some distant destination.
So, why then, in the name of All That is Holy, is it that policy developers seem to be obsessed with producing road maps or route maps for the future of agriculture?
Now, we in Scotland have been used to this being held up at every opportunity when we look for some detail to be delivered on the direction of future farm support since the Scottish Government published its farming route map back in February 2023.
As elusive as ever
Yet three years on, specific information surrounding much of the phased introduction of the four-tier framework we have been promised seems to remain as elusive as ever.
However, while policy has changed much south of the Border over the same timescale, it was only last week that Defra released its own road map outlining Westminster’s vision for the future of agriculture in England through to 2050.
I’m not sure if AI had been used to write it but it was an online article which flagged up that a call had been made for, and I quote, ‘more plant-based crops’ to be grown. This caught my eye and had me tracking down more details on what our cousins south of the Border can expect to see over the next 25 years.
Now, like all these things, it does seem to be a pretty hefty document – but despite the report’s two-year gestation, the 73-page document certainly seems to have been met with a bit of a mixed response.
Undermining confidence
Developed ‘in partnership with farmers’, the Defra document follows on from the publication of former NFU president Minette Batters’ farm profitability review which was released last December – and which, warning that uncertainty was dramatically undermining confidence within the sector, called for a long-term strategy to be laid out which showed that farming profitability should be at the heart of government decision-making.
But, a bit like our own route map up here in Scotland, while the document was strong on making supportive noises – expressing ambition for a profitable, resilient and productive agricultural sector with sustainability at its core – it didn’t seem to measure up on the actual means of delivery or on the urgency which was required to do so.
“While the road map is full of ambition, it falls short on action and even shorter on means of delivery,” commented English NFU president Ben Bradshaw, pointing to the lack of long-term funding to go with it.
“Intent alone will not deliver a secure and affordable supply of homegrown food for the nation, nor care for 70% of England’s landscape,” he said, adding that the Treasury was conspicuously absent from the plan.
Some of the notable highlights included a commitment to extend the horticulture sector’s seasonal workers visa regime until at least 2033 and extra funding for the farming innovation programme. The important role of collaborative models such as co-operatives was highlighted to encourage collective purchasing and investment at lowered costs.
And to address the supply chain power imbalances, there was a commitment to extend the Fair Dealings Obligations Regulations through the Agricultural Supply Chain Adjudicator and tackle contractual unfairness using powers under the Agriculture Act 2020.
Reducing reliance on fertilisers
But possibly with the closure of the Strait of Hormuz still fresh in everyone’s mind, although there were commitments on reducing reliance on fertilisers and on crop protection products, other than vague promises on long-term fertiliser and nutrient plans along with a commitment to an ‘innovative circular economy approach’, details on how this would be achieved were thin on the ground.
Similarly, the proposal to bring 60% of England’s agricultural soils into ‘sustainable management’ by 2030 and establishing a national soil-monitoring baseline by 2029 sounded similar to some of the moves already under way here in Scotland. But again, exactly how this outcome would be delivered wasn’t clear.
At the end of the day, though, there didn’t seem to be any getting away from the fact that the costs and risks of any transition in the farming sector would have to be borne by farm businesses at a time when they are already under considerable pressure.
So, on both sides of the Border, when are we ever going to get a clearer indication of exactly where we’re heading and guidance on the shortest route? Not by the sort of difficult-to-read, old-tech route or road map – but by something more akin to a live, updated, signal-corrected satnav app for the future of agriculture?
One which will not only tell us where we should be going, but also give us some indication of where the roadworks are likely to lie or where there’s been a bit of a pile-up – and one which can offer us alternative routes and give us some idea of how long it will take for us to reach our destination.
Until we get something firm like that to work with, our compasses will remain spinning without direction.
