A Northamptonshire hedger is ably assisted by a smiling land girl eager to learn the rural craft of hedge making and maintenance in this gentle instructional film, made by the Realist Film Unit for the Ministry of Agriculture.
Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries
In the late 1920s and early 1930s the Government introduce new measures to support domestic agriculture and farmers' income. Subsidies or price insurance schemes were created for sugar beet, wheat, cattle, dairy and sheep. The Agricultural Produce (Grading and Marketing) Act 1928 promoted the standardisation of grades and packaging and introduced the "National Mark", a trade mark denoting home-produced food of a defined quality for eggs, beef, apples and pears. The Agricultural Marketing Acts of 1931 and 1933 sought to organise farmers into co-operative marketing associations and created Marketing Boards for bacon, pigs, hops, milk and potatoes. The Import Duties Act 1932 introduced a tariff on most imports including fruit and vegetables and quotas on imports of bacon, ham and other meat products. In 1936 the tithe rent charge was abolished, compensation paid to the Church and the money recovered from farmers over a 60-year period. In 1937 a scheme was introduce to subsidise the spreading of lime on agricultural land to boost the fertility of the soil. The Minister of Agriculture was given powers to regulate the cultivation and management of land, end tenancies, even take possession of land, under the Emergency Powers (Defence) Act 1939. On 1 September 1939 many of these powers were delegated to County War Agricultural Executive Committees ("War Ags").
Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries
In the late 1920s and early 1930s the Government introduce new measures to support domestic agriculture and farmers' income. Subsidies or price insurance schemes were created for sugar beet, wheat, cattle, dairy and sheep. The Agricultural Produce (Grading and Marketing) Act 1928 promoted the standardisation of grades and packaging and introduced the "National Mark", a trade mark denoting home-produced food of a defined quality for eggs, beef, apples and pears. The Agricultural Marketing Acts of 1931 and 1933 sought to organise farmers into co-operative marketing associations and created Marketing Boards for bacon, pigs, hops, milk and potatoes. The Import Duties Act 1932 introduced a tariff on most imports including fruit and vegetables and quotas on imports of bacon, ham and other meat products. In 1936 the tithe rent charge was abolished, compensation paid to the Church and the money recovered from farmers over a 60-year period. In 1937 a scheme was introduce to subsidise the spreading of lime on agricultural land to boost the fertility of the soil. The Minister of Agriculture was given powers to regulate the cultivation and management of land, end tenancies, even take possession of land, under the Emergency Powers (Defence) Act 1939. On 1 September 1939 many of these powers were delegated to County War Agricultural Executive Committees ("War Ags").
War was declared on 3 September 1939. The UK entered the war well prepared for the maintenance of supplies of food but with less than 40% of the country's needs produced at home. The Ministry of Food was formed on 8 September and William Morrison appointed Minister. The Ministry of Food became the sole buyer and importer of food and regulated prices, guaranteeing farmers prices and markets for their produce. The Marketing Boards, except for milk and hops, were suspended.
Although the upper levels of government would remain in London to act as a “nucleus” the plan was to evacuate the majority of civil servants, mainly to seaside resorts that would have empty hotel accommodation. In this way for example the Ministry of Food (created separately from the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries) established a major presence at Colwyn Bay (near Llandudno, North Wales). From their base on the Welsh Coast, the relocated civil servants (under Lord Woolton, Minister of Food from April '40 until '43) not only set about the enormous task of organising the distribution and rationing of food, they also initiated a massive propaganda effort directed at the people of Great Britain to educate them to feed themselves. It was from Colwyn Bay that initiatives such as “Dig for Victory” were set out.
Recruiting began for the Women's Land Army and in 1940, food rationing was introduced. Lord Woolton succeeded William Morrison as Minister for Food. In 1941, the US Lend-Lease act was passed under which food, agricultural machinery and equipment was sent from the US to the UK.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ministry_of_Agriculture,_Fisheries_and_Food_(United_Kingdom)#Ministry_of_Agriculture_and_Fisheries
Minister of Agriculture - 29 January 1939 to 14 May 1940
Reginald Dorman-Smith was educated at Harrow School and the Royal Military College at Sandhurst. After serving in the army, he continued his career with a strong interest in agriculture, becoming president of the National Farmers Union (the NFU) at the age of 32, and then later Minister of Agriculture. He was first elected as a Member of Parliament (MP) for Petersfield in the 1935 general election as one of a handful of MPs sponsored by the NFU and served as the Union's president for the following few years.
In the late 1930s, the British Government's agricultural policy came in for heavy criticism from the NFU, Parliament and the Press and in January 1939 Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain took the bold step of appointing Dorman-Smith as Minister of Agriculture. In October 1940, Dorman-Smith instigated the Government's Dig for Victory campaign, aimed at increasing food production from allotments. However, when Chamberlain fell, Dorman-Smith was not included in the government of his successor, Winston Churchill.
Dorman-Smith was referred to in the book "Guilty Men" by Michael Foot, Frank Owen and Peter Howard (writing under the pseudonym 'Cato'), published in 1940 as an attack on public figures for their failure to re-arm and their appeasement of Nazi Germany.
Minister of Agriculture - 14 May 1940 to 26 July 1945
Robert Spear Hudson, 1st Viscount Hudson, CH, PC (15 August 1886 – 2 February 1957) was a British Conservative Party politician who held a number of ministerial posts during WW2.
He served in several ministerial posts, becoming a Privy Counsellor in 1938. From 1937 to 1940, Hudson served in the Department of Overseas Trade. He had a particular interest in farming and was a member of the council of the Royal Agricultural Society. In 1940, Hudson was appointed the Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, a post he would hold until the 1945 election. In the opinion of Edward Turnour, 6th Earl Winterton, Hudson "was by far the best of Ministers of Agriculture in either war...he was determined to see that farmers and landowners alike utilised every acre of soil to help keep the nation from starvation".
---
MoF - Ministry of Food ..
The Minister of Food Control (1916–1921) and the Minister of Food (1939–1958) were British government ministerial posts separated from that of the Minister of Agriculture. In the Great War the Ministry sponsored a network of canteens known as National Kitchens. In the Second World War a major task of the Ministry was to oversee rationing in the United Kingdom necessitated by WW2. The Minister was assisted by a Parliamentary Secretary.
Forestry Commission established as part of the Forestry Act 1919.
Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food .
Historic figures
Sir John Sinclair, 1st Baronet British politician, writer on both finance and agriculture, first person to use the word statistics in the English language .
Arthur Young English writer on agriculture, economics and social statistics.
Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food .
Historic figures
Sir John Sinclair, 1st Baronet British politician, writer on both finance and agriculture, first person to use the word statistics in the English language .
Arthur Young English writer on agriculture, economics and social statistics.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.