Contribution
My Lords, we are indebted to the right reverend Prelate for so graphically describing the often-ignored problem of mental health in rural communities and the part that uncertainty and unpredictability play in that problem. This issue is a deeply serious matter. Problems of access, transport links and availability of professional help for health problems are all more difficult in sparsely populated rural areas. The prosperity and, above all, the confidence of the farming sector are at the very centre of the whole rural economy, from jobs to sales of seed and fertiliser, machinery, food processing and livestock, veterinary services, and retail and hospitality. If farmers prosper, so do our rural communities.
Farmers produce 60% of our food. They care for our environment and are frequently leaders in rural communities, taking part in local government, school management, and our churches and chapels. But isolation, long working hours and financial pressures, often unpredictable, make theirs a lonely job. Farmers have to make their decisions alone, as we all know. As the right reverend Prelate said, they have access to firearms and pesticides. I fear that some noble Lords here today will have had first-hand experience of suicides within their rural communities. I certainly have, and my noble friend Lord Fuller, who comes from the same county, will also have had that experience. The right reverend Prelate has graphically described the situation.
A RABI survey found that 47% of the farming community experienced high anxiety rates—much higher than in the rest of our community. Many organisations have been set up across the country over time to help. I recall that when I was at the ministry of agriculture in the early 1990s we worked with RABI and the Royal Show to promote better access to help with mental health for farmers. In 2008, the agricultural community in Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex set up the organisation YANA: You Are Not Alone. It continues to provide a full-time, dedicated and confidential helpline with trained advisers and access to counselling. This statistic speaks for itself: alarmingly, its helpline calls and the durations of those calls have increased by nearly 40% in the last year alone.
Climate change, floods, drought, storms, the extraordinary international situation, supply shortages, ever-increasing energy prices and massive uncertainty surrounding future food supplies have combined to create an unprecedentedly difficult time for the whole agricultural sector and, importantly, the very high anxiety rates for those working in it. Uncertainty regarding your livelihood is one of the principal causes of depression. We all understand that uncertainty is built into farming. Farming is all about planning ahead: what to drill, when to harvest, when to invest in irrigation systems, machinery and livestock, and how to find new markets, all in constantly shifting circumstances. Farmers have to plan not just for one year but for several seasons ahead, taking account of the whole farm and those working on it.
This is why the Government’s shock inheritance tax announcement—taxing not only our very means of food production but its future—was received with disbelief by the whole rural community. There have been other sudden shock changes in support for agriculture from this Government, frequently at short notice, as was the case with the SFI, smashing to smithereens forward planning within the sector. I accept that the Minister has taken every chance to make improvements for the farming community where it has been possible. However, that kind of uncertainty within your own livelihood can be very difficult to handle in an industry already fraught with uncertainties, especially if it is caused by government, as has regrettably happened during the past couple of years. It is particularly serious—indeed, unacceptable—because, at this time of global uncertainty, a safe, affordable and sustainable food supply is central to our national security.
Professor Tim Lang, in his 2025 report for the National Preparedness Commission, stated that strong and resilient productive capacity is essential in facing global climate events, geopolitical disruptions, wars and blockades, and fragile food supply chains. He added that food security should be treated as part of our national infrastructure planning, as it must. The mental health of those who produce our food, their success and productivity and that of those who live in rural communities, is of key importance. They already live with the anxiety and uncertainties that are part of their way of life. The Government should not add to these uncertainties with sudden cuts or policy changes. The Government should instead recognise the vital role that these people play in the very survival of our nation.
A Minister in the other place recently advised that, in the light of the current situation geopolitically, we should be stocking up our food cupboards. That we need to make our own food supply secure and healthy before we can follow that Minister’s advice will be obvious to the noble Lords taking part in this debate and, I hope and believe, to the Minister.