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?