HC Deb 04 November 1976 vol 918 c1612
12. Mr. Teddy Taylor

asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will pay an official visit to a cold store where food mountains are stored.

Mr. John Silkin

I have at present no plans to do so.

Mr. Taylor

Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that the beef mountain has been growing at over 1,000 tons a week for the past two years and is now over 300,000 tons? If the right hon. Gentleman will not visit a beef mountain, will he visit butchers' shops in Glasgow, where beef consumption is falling because the people cannot afford to buy it?

Mr. Silkin

The beef mountain in the hon. Gentleman's cold store will be declining in size and becoming merely a hillock by the end of the year. I made clear in answer to an earlier question that there are certain aspects of the common agricultural policy which we seek to improve. Among those—I put it first—is the structural surplus that the hon. Gentleman calls a mountain.

Mr. Jay

Does my right hon. Friend regard food mountains and the state of the common agricultural policy generally as one of the benefits that this country has derived from Common Market membership?

Mr. Silkin

My right hon. Friend must have missed what I thought was a fairly clear answer to an earlier Question. No, Sir, I do not so regard it.