Growing for another century

The farmer’s championFarming has always been, and always will be, a much discussed

industry. By its nature it is embroiled in sensitive issues such as

food safety, animal welfare and the look of the countryside.

Because of this the NFU and its membership have always been

proactive in ‘getting the message across’. Before the war it was

called ‘propaganda’ but today we call it PR.

Over the years the communication initiatives

of the NFU’s fully staffed public relations

department have taken many forms – media

training for members, commissioning short

cinema films, posters, car stickers and

all manner of other literature putting over

the farming case. Then there has been

the big campaigns such as ‘Tug Tractor’

in the 1960s to ‘Why Farming Matters’ today.

President Tom Baxter (far right) at the BBC.

The BBC was formed in 1927,

the NFU made its first complaint

of anti-farming bias in 1928.

NFU Men take their case to the

streets of Mayfield in 1965

Sir Ben Gill

Keep Britain Farming

campaign 1998

Why Farming Matters

campaign logo 2007

The Tug Tractor campaign of the 1960s carried many messages that are still relevant today

The NFU at warIn both world wars, Britain faced the very real threat of being

starved into surrender as more and more of the imports which

in 1939 supplied over two thirds of the country’s food were sent

to the bottom of the ocean by German submarines. The answer

was the Dig for Victory campaigns, in which the NFU played

a vital role.

Without the NFU’s networks to get advice and information

to farmers, its active members to populate the WarAgs

which drove the ploughing-up campaigns and the single point

of contact with the farming industry that it provided for the

Government, the outcome could have been very different.

The NFU war cabinet meets with the Minister of Agriculture former NFU President

Col. Sir Reginald Dorman-Smith in 1940

President Jim Turner (later Lord Netherthorpe)

presents members of the Women’s Land Army

with armbands denoting dedicated war-time service

on Britain’s farms

Growing for another century

The Ploughing-Up campaign on the outskirts

of London In the First World War and, to a lesser extent

in the Second, one of the first demands

on agriculture was the conscription of horses

From its earliest days, when the founding fathers

took a very conscious decision not to get involved

in party politics, the NFU has always worked closely,

but impartially, with the Government of the day.

Although the closeness and importance of this

special relationship reached a peak in wartime,

it has also proved its worth on countless occasions

during peacetime, ranging from the creation of the

Marketing Boards in the 1930s, through the fixing

of guaranteed prices during the annual Price Review

in the post-war era, to the reforms of the CAP in

recent years.

Many commentators have remarked down the years on how

the political influence of the farming industry has far outweighed

its size. That has been down to the NFU.

The NFU and the Government

‘Wanted in 1914, neglected in 1930’ – farmers on the march.

Col. Sir Reginald Dorman-

Smith NFU President in 1936,

who went on to become

the first wartime Minister

of Agriculture in 1939

Prime Minister Tony Blair, and Minister of Agriculture

Nick Brown at the NFU AGM 2000, with NFU Deputy

Presidents Tim Bennett and Tony Pexton and

Director General Richard MacDonald

Growing for another century

President Peter Kendall

and Director General Richard

MacDonald leaving No. 10

Downing Street

Lord Henry Plumb (NFU President

1970–79) with Prime Minister Thatcher

The NFU at times of crisisFloods, blizzards, droughts, disease … no matter what the crisis

for Britain’s farming community, the NFU has always been there

in its hour of need. It was particularly prominent in the three great

foot and mouth outbreaks of the last century, in 1923, 1967

and 2001, in helping to stamp out disease and bring help and

comfort to the farming families who were its victims; whilst in the

1996 BSE crisis, the NFU arguably saved the beef industry from

meltdown with the over thirty month scheme.

A foot and mouth pyre in the early 1950s, it was an unpleasant sight that farming witnessed

all too often from 1923 onwards.

The weather is an occupational hazard in farming, but when it turns

truly nasty – as with the 1976 drought, the 1953 floods or the winter

of 1962/3 – the NFU has been there to co-ordinate emergency

aid and win public and government support for the recovery.

NFU’s ‘Black Winter’ 1953

Growing for another century

Vice President Paul Temple

with John Lund and Tracy Akinson

on their farm in Driffield during

the 2007 floods

The NFU abroad

President Sir Jim Turner (Lord Netherthorpe) sets off to visit America and Australia.

He brought back the vision of the IFAP.

Farmers across the world share many different problems

and can learn a huge amount from each other in how

those problems are tackled and overcome. That was

something the NFU recognised as long ago as 1933,

when Milk Committee chairman (and past President)

Tom Baxter, led a deputation to visit New Zealand.

Growing for another century

President Tom Baxter (left) meets Lord Bledisloe,

Governor General in New Zealand

In 1945, the NFU took the lead in

forming the International Federation

of Agricultural Producers and it was

one of the first organisations in Britain

to open an office in Brussels when

the UK joined the EEC in 1973.

Britain may be an island, and food

production may be hugely competitive

internationally, but the NFU has

never been insular in its thinking

or protectionist in its approach.

NFU delegation including

President Sir Ben Gill and

Deputy President Tim Bennett

takes the fight to Brussels.

The NFU as an organisationThe NFU has always sought to make up in professionalism what

it has lacked in weight of numbers. From the very earliest days,

when Secretary General H. W. Palmer provided the perfect foil

to President Colin Campbell, the NFU’s success has been based

on elected farmer members and professional staff working

as a team to secure results.

The Lincolnshire Pioneers in 1906

Crucial to the organisation’s development

has been the relationship with the NFU Mutual,

which has enabled the NFU to provide a level

of local service and representation through the

group secretary network not remotely matched

by any other rural organisation. NFU Mutual

has grown into one of the UK’s leading insurers.

Another vital ingredient in the mix has been the NFU’s shrewd

and far-sighted property investments, not least in its most iconic

HQ building, Agriculture House, Knightsbridge, and the new state

of the art headquarters at Stoneleigh.

Growing for another century

Clockwise from left:

• James Black, one of the pioneers behind

the NFU Mutual outside his farmhouse in 1912.

• NFU HQ at Stoneleigh since 2005

• The new edifice of the NFU emerges

out of a Knightsbridge bomb site.

• President Sir James Turner presents

the Queen Mother with a silver cup

at the official opening of Agriculture House,

Knightsbridge 1956

The NFU and ChurchillWinston Churchill is considered by many to be ‘the greatest Briton’.

He is remembered as many things: statesman, war-leader, author,

wit and painter. But he was also a farmer on a

350 acre farm at Chartwell in Kent. He had a

particular love of his pedigree herd of belted

Galloways (he called them ‘my belties’). He also

kept pigs which won prizes at local shows. He

famously remarked ‘I like pigs.

Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us.

Pigs treat us as equals’.

As a poltician farmers were grateful to him

when as Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1929

he relieved farm-land of rates. He was also a member of the NFU

belonging to the Edenbridge branch.

Churchill, with Prime Minister Eden to his left and future MAFF Minister Soames to his right

watching a ploughing demonstration at his farm in Chartwell, Kent in the 1950s

Churchill addresses members

at 1953 AGM dinner

Growing for another century

He was guest of honour at the

1953 NFU Annual dinner where he uttered

the memorable line ‘Thirty million people living

on an island where we produce enough food

for fifteen million is a spectacle of majesty and

insecurity this country can ill afford’.

He also quipped, as he peered over his half-

moon spectacles at the ranks of farmers

in their dinner jackets ‘I see you are in your

normal working clothes’.

A recording was made of Churchill’s after

dinner address and was made available to

members as a gramophone record. This is

available for visitors of this exhibition to hear.

Please see exhibition information.

Churchill shares a joke with President

James Turner and NFU members

at 1953 AGM dinner

Churchill’s NFU Membership Form.

Was he our most famous member?