Farm production in the UK

Parliament isn't just a place to score political points. Written questions are supposed to serve as a way for MPs to glean important information. The following question from James Paice, Shadow Minister for Agriculture, has received an interesting answer:

Mr. Paice: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how much (a) wheat, (b) barley, (c) fresh vegetables, (d) potatoes, (e) fresh fruit, (f) beef and veal, (g) pork, (h) bacon and ham, (i) mutton and lamb, (j) poultry meat, (k) eggs and (l) liquid milk was produced by volume in England in each year since 1997. [229492]

Jane Kennedy: The figures are shown in the following table.

Volume of UK production
		1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007
Wheat	Th. tonnes	15,018	15,449	14,867	16,704	11,580	15,973	14,288	15,473	14,863	14,735	13,137
Barley	Th. tonnes	7,828	6,623	6,581	6,492	6,660	6,128	6,370	5,816	5,495	5,239	5,079
Vegetables	Th. tonnes	2,937	2,863	2,952	2,923	2,865	2,573	2,543	2,591	2,737	2,650	2,526
Potatoes	Th. tonnes	7,128	6,422	7,131	6,178	6,674	6,921	6,058	6,246	5,979	5,727	5,635
Fruit	Th. tonnes	292	278	347	307	331	294	269	294	363	392	398
Beef and Veal	Th. tonnes	698	695	679	704	645	694	703	724	765	852	888
Pork	Th. tonnes	884	921	823	716	595	614	569	577	574	575	617
Bacon and Ham	Th. tonnes	242	240	243	224	217	216	214	211	214	209	185
Mutton and Lamb	Th. tonnes	342	373	392	383	267	307	310	319	336	332	328
Poultry meat	Th. tonnes	1,527	1,548	1,549	1,514	1,566	1,557	1,578	1,571	1,585	1,517	1,460
Eggs	Million dozen	903	883	842	817	861	856	843	892	884	853	825
Milk	Million litres	14,420	14,218	14,587	14,079	14,291	14,448	14,587	14,139	14,062	13,933	13,660
Source: Agriculture in the United Kingdom 2007, DEFRA

Of course there are lots of political implications here, not least in relation to the fact that yields have fallen in several areas. And we might ask why the Government's answer showed UK-wide statistics, when Mr Paice asked about production in England alone.

But it's also interesting - and sort of cool - to know that British hens laid 9,900,000,000 eggs last year. Isn't it?!

UPDATE: The Scottish Conservatives have recently conducted a task force on food security, and published a report. It was edited by John Scott MSP, Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs & the Environment, and can be found here.