INSIGHT - Edition Ten - Winter 2021 online - Flipbook - Page 9
CLA NORTHERN FARMING
CONFERENCE 2021
We were delighted to be invited to join the line up of sponsors for the 2021
Northern Farming Confrence. The impressive line-up of speakers shared their
views at Hexham Auction Mart on Wednesday 3rd November, where 180
delegates - industry experts, farmers and politicians - gathered for the 11th
instalment of the event.
One of the key messages was the need to lobby the Government for change and ensure
it recognises farmers as part of the solution and not the problem.
Conference Chair Matthew Curry, Managing Director at North East Grains Ltd, said: “Now
more than ever is a time where we have to respond. We are being challenged and it is
evident that the Government aren’t in touch with the farming community as closely as
they maybe once were. We need to really show our resolve and get amongst our local
MPs and do some lobbying through the NFU, the CLA or even as collective individuals but
we can’t sit back and watch the future unfold. We have to be very proactive in how we
go forward.
THE GOVERNMENT
AREN’T IN TOUCH
WITH THE FARMING
COMMUNITY
AS
CLOSELY AS THEY
MAYBE ONCE WERE
Tim Farron, MP for Westmorland and Lonsdale in Cumbria, called on the industry to
change the debate and make a case for farming, for an ethical approach to trade deals to
ensure British farmers, their high food and animal welfare standards were not sacrificed
in achieving such deals (but that they were instead influenced and informed by farmers),
and for the Environment Land Management (ELM) scheme to be accessible to as many
farmers and land managers as possible.
He said phasing out the BPS before the new scheme is in place is already forcing people
to leave the industry.
“If farmers cannot get into the new schemes they will go broke or go backwards, undoing
the good work of recent years,” said Mr Farron.
“Farmers need to flourish. One of the greenest things the Government can do is to keep
farmers farming. If this is a battle for the future of the environment then you need an
army - and farmers are that army,” said Mr Farron.
Baroness Natalie Bennett, former Green Party leader who became the second Green
member of the House of Lords in 2019, took a break from the COP26 climate talks in
Glasgow to attend the conference.
She said that food security will be the most important challenge of our age, highlighting
the importance of growing our own food and working together to maintain and improve
environmental standards in producing it.
“Cheap food is costing us the earth and costing farmers their farms,” she said. “What we
have to see is a fair price for food and that means a fair price going to our farmers.
“Where we are now is profoundly unstable. We cannot and will not continue as we are.”
In a rallying call to the industry, she added: “Get farmers of the UK united, lobby the
House of Lords and we can make a difference. Make politics what you do, not have done
to you.”
The Northern Farming Conference is a joint venture between, AMC (Agricultural Mortgage
Corporation), Armstrong Watson, Catchment Sensitive Farming, the CLA, Gibson & Co
Solicitors, Hexham and Northern Marts, North East Grains, Womble Bond Dickinson and
youngsRPS.
8