The most wide-ranging change of policy for Britain’s food production since World War 11, announced at the Oxford Farming Conference on Tuesday, has received a mixed reaction from various farming bodies.

The plans, revealed by Environment Secretary Hilary Benn, lay out sweeping changes in a wide area of food production, processing and sales.

They urge farmers to produce more food but use more environmentally “green” methods; food labelling which will show the origin of food processed here but produced abroad; an end to “sell-by-date” labelling and – something which will not go down well in the towns and cities – “slop buckets” for householders to collect food waste so that it does not end up in landfill sites.

The reaction was mixed, as in a statement by Yorkshire landowner William Worsley, president of the Country Land and Business Association, who described the paper as “considered and well balanced.”

The CLA, he said, would “look forward to working with Government to achieve a more competitive food industry, with healthy nutritional food produced more sustainably, while greenhouse gas emissions and waste are reduced and skills and research and development improved.”

But he also cast grave doubts on hopes that farm subsidies will eventually be phased out in Britain: “The Government knows that this will significantly restructure the industry, to fewer larger units, reduce production and increase imports - some of dubious environmental quality.

“The Government is consistently underestimating the EU budget required for food and environmental security, and needs to confront and be straight with the industry and the British public on its stance.”

Surprisingly, the plan did not go down well with the Soil Association, the leader of the organic farming sector. It issued a statement saying that instead of increasing regulation, the Government should cut red tape to make it easier to grow food – and added that all the talk about food labelling was simply confusing consumers.

Our countryside commentator John Sheard writes: “Some of the ideas proposed by Hilary Benn are quite encouraging – but just how farmers can produce more food and at the same time introduce more “green” methods is pie-in-the sky without a huge amount of new research.

“It could well be that this is a disguised hint that we must move into genetically modified (GM) crops, which is massively controversial and – if recent experience is anything to go by – those crops would be boycotted by consumers if they there were honestly labelled.

“In other words, the whole plan – which is intended to be introduced of a period of 20 years – is riddled with inconsistencies. To me, it sounds more like electioneering than serious policy for it comes at a time when New Labour have virtually ignored farming for the past 12 years.

“It is highly unlikely that Labour will be in power for the next 20 years to force such change through and, anyway, the Conservatives scored a major hit on Tuesday by announcing that they would create a supermarket Ombudsman to ensure that the chain retailers give their suppliers a fair price for their produce.

“This is something that New Labour have resolutely refused to do for the past five years, despite the fact that several of the bigger chains were found guilty of collusion to force down the price paid for milk.

“As far as I can judge from farmers here in the Yorkshire Dales, these Government proposals are simply too little, too late.”