THE PRESIDENT of the English NFU this week ended any thoughts that the Conservative party, in government, still has an interest in agriculture as a key part of the economy.

Minette Batters told the union's AGM that the government had displayed a 'complete lack of understanding' about how food production works. She went on to criticise its post-Brexit policies, citing red tape around exports, labour shortages and a trade policy built around cheap food imports. This went down well with the audience and secured some good national headlines, but it will fall on deaf ears at Westminster.

This is sad, because the Conservative party in the past not only produced some outstanding farm ministers, but at its heart had an interest in farming and the rural economy. That no longer exists and votes from farmers and rural areas are now seen as irrelevant. The farming lobby in England has taken too long to flag up these issues and the way the Johnson-led government has used Brexit to abandon agriculture as a key industry, fit now only to deliver the government's one-sided vision of a green countryside.

Attacks on these policies earlier might have delivered dividends, but decisions are always easy in hindsight. This dismissal of the importance of farming is all the more worrying as we face into a period of global uncertainty, thanks to events in Ukraine. People in general and government ministers in particular should be recognising the absolute importance of food security, but it is still being taken for granted.

Slapping sanctions on Russian oligarchs, especially in the half-hearted way the UK has to date, will not curtail Putin and more will be required at a European level. This is bound to have an impact on agriculture if and when Russia hits back. At one level Russia is a huge market, in volume terms, for the EU. Over the years it has been capable of absorbing a lot of surplus production of key commodities. Russia and Ukraine also trade into Europe, but above all Russia has its hands on the levers that control the European gas supply. Hit that and the twin issues of energy security and food security will move up the agenda.

What will also move up will be fertiliser prices, with Russia driving that through the gas price, but also as a significant supplier of ammonium nitrate. Exports of that product are banned by Russia until April, but it is hard in the present circumstances to see that trade returning to normal after that ban is due to end.

Brexit, driven by the promises made then by the now prime minister, Boris Johnson, was supposed to be a new beginning for agriculture. The promise was of fewer regulations, of a support system geared up to UK conditions and of policies that would make the industry productive and globally competitive. None of those commitments are being met for England. The industry is being dismissed as a source of food in favour of a new role to deliver an urban view of what a green countryside should look like.

One of the big hidden issues of leaving the EU, now being felt by the UK farming lobby, is that it has lost the influence of the aggressive farming lobby of some EU countries, led by France. For years it made demands and secured victories, which had to be implemented by the UK as an EU member state. Now that comfort blanket has gone and the disconnect over policy highlighted by the NFU has become farming's post-Brexit legacy.

With a difficult presidential election looming, France is using its six-month EU presidency as part of the Macron election. Farming is part of that process. Slowly but steadily its farm minister, Julian Denormandie, has pushed the concept of imports having to match EU rules. He has linked this to deforestation, which is an open door to push, but then linked it to food sovereignty and food security. His thinking that EU standards must apply to imports is gaining traction beyond farming.

Over new animal welfare regulations, members of the European parliament told Brussels new rules must also apply to meat imported into Europe. France is also seeking to block the Mercosur trade deal with South America, linking this to deforestation. When the French were illegally burning lorries carrying British lamb we would never have thought a few years on we would be missing the influence of the French on our policies for agriculture.