GROW HORTICULTURE
Lewis Normand, plantsman, garden designer, lecturer and RCHS Trustee, from Fife, intends to petition the UK government to redefine the roles of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) in order to better represent horticulture in parliament. The proposal is to create a Minister for Horticulture to sit within the remit of the DEFRA umbrella who is a named individual, responsible for advocating and representing horticulture within the UK government.
A 2018 Horticultural Trades Association commissioned report highlighted over half a million, that’s 1 in every 62, jobs directly and indirectly dependant on horticulture which equates to around £24.2 billion in value to the economy.
“Where many other industries are supported with a voice in parliament, horticulture often goes unnoticed,” says Lewis, “as an extension of agriculture. During the recent Brexit negotiations, seasonal foreign workers within agriculture were discussed, though there was no mention of those for the horticultural industry.
“Fisheries, which is valued at less than £1 billion per year in the UK became a stumbling block for negotiations and yet horticulture, currently experiencing many of the same issue of import and export, though on a significantly greater scale in terms of volume and value, did not even enter discussions.
“Indeed, in December 2020 DEFRA seemed unaware of the volume of trucks and trollies of plants that enter the UK across the year from Europe and the PEACH system used to import plants has proven to be incomplete as a programme, lacking many data elements for specific plant lines and experiencing daily teething problems which makes it dangerously unstable as our sole means of plant movement.
“Similarly, UK Exporters found in November 2020 (implemented January 1st 2021) that they would be unable to export into the EU with plants grown in anything other than pure peat or coir composts - something which the UK is trying to minimise the use of rather than encourage. I have seen no discussion between our government and the EU on changing this and enabling our growers to export into the bloc.
“A Minister for Horticulture, who could better bridge DEFRA with the industry and the parliament benches would be a relatively simple answer to this issue and a clear sign of commitment of support with a dedicated agenda to maintaining communication with our trading partners around the world.”
Lewis Normand asks for support of his petition at change.org.