Positive Power

Stuart Roberts is the larger-than-life director – both in personality and physical size – of the body that represents this country’s biggest abattoirs and manufacturers, the British Meat Processors Association (BMPA). 

What many in the industry will not be aware of, however, is that he probably did more than anyone else to bring about a return of over-30-month (OTM) beef to the food chain, when he was a civil servant at Defra. For he was the man from the Ministry who designed, trialled and implemented the robust BSE testing regime in OTM cattle, which is still going strong after being introduced some three years ago.  

“It has worked well so far, touch wood,” he says touching the substantial table in the BMPA’s London boardroom, which commands one of the best window views of Sir Christopher Wren’s iconic architectural masterpiece St Paul’s Cathedral. “It’s working as well as I imagined” he adds. This modest remark belies the fact that he put in two years of gruelling work to make it happen, earning the trust and respect of key industry figures in the process.   

Roberts goes on to mention that this is the single biggest achievement of his career so far, but that is by no means what he wants to emphasise. His main point, which he returns to again and again, is that it was a great example of how well government civil servants and the industry can work together, when both sides have a common aim and are united in a cause. 

The handling of bluetongue earlier this year was another good example, he argues, of where the two sides, government and industry, worked together. “It was not Defra saying, ‘This is what we’re going to do’, it was about government and industry sitting down and taking decisions together.” 

He says the trust and respect he earned from the industry was because he put the hours and the effort in, and he took the trouble to get out of  Whitehall and actually meet the people who mattered, unlike a lot of civil servants. “It brought me into contact with the likes of John Thorley, Robert Forster, Kevin Pearce and Peter Bradnock,” he said. 

OPTIMIST

On meeting Roberts, one quickly gets the feeling that he is a man whose glass is always half full rather than half empty. A year into the post of BMPA director, he is already proving to be a worthy successor to the late, well-liked, Peter Scott, with a personality and sense of humour to match. In fact, it took nothing like a year for him to prove his mettle for, literally within days of taking up the post, the 2007 foot-and-mouth outbreak struck. It was, to coin a recent phrase by the Prime Minister, no time for a novice and Roberts’ track record at Defra, allied with his knowledge of farming – he is a partner in the family farm in Hertfordshire, carried him through the crisis with flying colours.   

An important part of dealing with government, he says, is to understand what the objectives of policy are and then help to achieve them by finding the least-worst solutions that cause the least damage to the whole industry. Roberts, it seems, is not only an optimist but a pragmatist too.  

Arguably, his greatest strength is that he has been part of the government machine, seen it, done it and got the
T-shirt. He knows the system and the rules. One crucial point for industry to bear in mind in dealing with government is to present a united front, he says. “It’s about trust. Disagree between ourselves in the industry on the small things, by all means, but reach agreement on the big issues. As a civil servant it’s great to have a group disagreeing about something, because it means you can decide the outcome. If a group is aligned and speaking with one voice, however, it can be extremely powerful.”

Part of the problem from the meat and farming industry’s point of view is that there are too many cooks spoiling the broth in a pan that is getting smaller by the year. Roberts estimates that the government now has to deal with some 200 organisations, trade bodies and groups with a vested interest in the meat and farming sectors. In an industry that is contracting and not making much money, it is unsustainable for all of them to survive, let alone reach an agreement that presents a united front to the government, he argues. Several large, powerful, well-organised and professional bodies are needed to represent the industry. 

People in the industry should not be afraid of disagreeing with each other over details if it helps get to the big
issues that need resolving, he adds. “One of the problems is that, sometimes, people think too much about what they say.  It’s healthy to fall out occasionally. There’s nothing wrong with having a bloody good row now and then.”

Too often, people do not spend enough time understanding what the issues are and too much time talking, playing the amateur politician and seeking personal ambitions, rather than listening and trying to improve the lot of the industry, he says. One of the main reasons for this, he argues, is that there is a lack of real leadership in the meat sector. “Too many people start an agenda for the industry because there’s this void.”

Whoever does take a lead, he is sure it should not be the new Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB). “A levy body is not there to represent the industry. We should be telling the AHDB what our agenda is.”

In his first year, Roberts has tried hard to practise what he preaches, by going to government and to organisations with suggested solutions, rather than going with a list of problems and objections. “Identifying problems is as easy as
shooting fish in a barrel. It just hands the problem on to someone else.” 

It is not just the industry’s fault, he says. Civil servants have not given the industry enough responsibility for running its own affairs and, thereby, the opportunity to take the initiative on issues. For example, there is the ongoing battle to achieve self-regulation of standards in the processing sector. Even though some battles are being won on this front, Roberts accepts it will probably be a decade before the goal is fully achieved. At the moment, it is a case of making progress by small steps.

DISCRIMINATING

On self-regulation there is the need for discrimination, he says, rewarding those who act responsibly. At present, the lack of discrimination distorts industry competition. He draws an analogy with driving a car to make the point. “If I constantly speed, I will have more fines, but not everyone who uses the road should be fined.”

In general, the industry should be more positive, he says. “We need to stop apologising and start celebrating the industry,” he notes. “Butchery is an absolute skill and an art, but we don’t stand up and say ‘This is a great career.’ At the moment, there is a very real future for the industry.” He does add that there are some big challenges, too, but his main point is that the industry is sometimes too negative for its own good.  

Roberts spent seven years working for Defra and the Food Standards Agency, a time during which he not only successfully led 11 trials of the BSE testing regime, but was also instrumental in launching the first UK consultation on cost-sharing, published Defra’s BSE sheep contingency plan and co-ordinated the management of the FSA’s incident and emergency communications.  

In a successful career so far, he has stayed no longer than two years in any one job. He acknowledges he may only be in the BMPA role for two years, but insists there is no reason why he should not be there for 20. Yet his future may take a different turn; as a local Conservative councillor in Hertfordshire, he is already on the political path. 

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