John Sheard hopes that the foot and mouth tragedy may provide a new direction for British agriculture

ABOUT TEN years ago, I interviewed a very distinguished Dalesman, Earl Peel, direct descendent of Prime Minister and police force founder Sir Robert Peel, about the future of the British countryside. He was not over optimistic.

At the time, he was running the huge sporting and farming Gunnerside Estate in Wensleydale and was an active junior member of the Conservative government in the House of Lords. Despite that, the main target for his pessimism was a government ministry - MAFF.

Even then, MAFF were doing some daft things. One department, for instance, was handing out grants for farmers to grub out hedges and another was giving grants for farmers to replant them. Lord Peel, who is one of this country's leading experts on land management, had a drastic solution in mind:

Scrap MAFF and replace it with a Department of Rural Affairs.

His reasons were simple. MAFF was still pursuing a post-war policy of encouraging farmers into even more intensive production despite the fact that Europe was awash with beef and butter mountains, wine and olive oil lakes. Only a government department which understood how the countryside really works could prevent disaster.

Nothing happened, of course, and MAFF lumbered on through the crises which followed: salmonella in eggs and chickens, listeria on cheeses, E.coli, the massive blow of BSE and now, the latest, foot and mouth.

Although Lord Peel could not foresee the above disasters, he was deeply worried that un-necessary over-production was damaging the countryside. The environment was being changed into one of monoculture; wildlife - particularly bird life - was being decimated; sheep were over-grazing the fells, wiping out thousands of acres of heather.

What was needed, he believed, was a managed, lower-intensity farming which protected everyone and everything involved: the farmers and their remote communities, the livestock, the landscape and the tourists it attracted, the wildlife. If only…

Easter is the most solemn time of the Christian calendar and this is the most solemn time in the English countryside that anyone can remember. But it seems, also, a time to look forward and hope that the latest crisis will be of some help to future generations.

The Prime Minister has promised a "root and branch" look at British farming if, as is likely, he is re-elected on June 7. He is known to be very angry indeed about MAFF's performance in the past few weeks so, with a bit of luck, he will take Lord Peel's advice and scrap it.

He has also promised to look into the "head-lock" that the major supermarket chains have on farm prices. He should go for that, too, in view of the £1 billion profit announced by Tesco this month.

But the farmers must act, too. In continental Europe, farmers classed almost as peasants by British standards have got together to form huge co-operatives, with their own transport fleets, depots, bottling and packaging plants. They deal with the super markets from strength and get a fair price for their produce.

Our farmers, too, must wean themselves away from the idea of subsidies on bulk production, rather than quality. Our consumers grow more choosy and health conscious by the day and produce must match those demands.

In the Dales, we are beginning to catch on. The Wensleydale creamery has boomed since being taken over by locals and producing top quality cheese and other dairy products. The Dales lamb consortium is beginning to show results. But much more must be done. If hill farmers get reduced subsidies by reducing their flocks, they should also be compensated by more grants for their stewardship of the landscape. If not, the Dales will return to their natural state of scrub, bracken and marsh.

And we ordinary consumers can do our bit, too, by seeking out locally produced, quality food items - and be prepared to pay a little extra. After all, it is non-farming Dales people who get all the benefits of our magnificent countryside with none of the hard labour involved.

Surely, that is worth a few pennies more…