Joe O'Toole (Independent)

I know mutton dressed as lamb and lamb dressed as mutton. I am lucky to be of a generation which learned the great art of telling them apart. I worry about young men who never had to make the distinction.

The Minister referred to competitiveness and diversification. I ask him to do me the favour of studying a highly technical area of diversification until he fully understands it. Why are farmers who wish to build wind generation facilities on their farms not being paid a decent price for placing spare electricity in the grid? Why is this electricity not counted towards carbon credits? This issue must be examined and farmers encouraged to engage in this area. I know of one if not two farmers who are Members of the other House and have wind turbines on their farms which generate 10 kw or more of electricity. They would be prepared to increase the electricity they generate.

We must examine the things we do not but could do. The Melton Mowbray pork pie is the great pork pie of the United Kingdom. At one stage, one could buy these pork pies in every Tesco store in the UK, which meant the tiny town of Melton Mowbray would have had to produce 1 million pork pies every day to meet demand. People in the town asked why the name of their town could be used on pies produced elsewhere. They took legal advice and discovered the principle of area of origin, under which certain products featuring the name of a place must come from the place in question. The concept tends to apply to wines but extends to many other products.