The House is very grateful to the hon. Member for Portsmouth, South (Sir J. Lucas) for his Motion. This is a matter which has received a great deal of publicity in recent months. It seems that man has ventured into this kind of factory farming with tremendous rashness. We are always saying that man interferes with his environment, and, indeed, that unless he did so, human life would be impossible, but it seems that in recent years, in the search for more and cheaper food, a great many experiments have been conducted and methods of producing food have been investigated in conditions which make them appear to be adventures into the unknown.

The Motion is most timely, because I, amongst many others, do not know enough either about factory farming or about its repercussions to feel very confident about consuming some of the food which is produced under these conditions. As a human male, I am naturally very perturbed by the implications of one part of the Motion, unless steps are taken to satisfy the people that these methods are not harmful to humans.

Not long ago I heard of a Lancashire cotton mill which had been turned into an egg factory. Those of us who were brought up on stories of the Industrial Revolution will remember the stories of Lancashire cotton mills. I was horrified at the idea of one of those dark, satanic mills being converted into an egg factory, with rows and rows of hens confined there. After all, for many years we complained about the conditions under which mill workers had to exist. The idea of eggs being produced in such an environment does not fill me with much satisfaction.

There is a need for a much closer scrutiny of factory farming methods, so that we can be satisfied that the food we eat every day does not contain elements which may ultimately do us great harm.