The modernisation of the Ministry of Agriculture, which was promised by Jack Cunningham when New Labour came to power in 1997, and was continued by Nick Brown, has gone a step further this week. For the first time, two non-executive directors have been appointed to MAFF's management board ­ the equivalent to a commercial firm's board of directors. They are Alison Huxtable, an executive manager with the energy company Amerada Hess, and Elizabeth Ransom, partner at KPMG, who has led the consultancy's work in central government. {{NEWS }}