“We talk about farming and we talk about agriculture, but we’ve got to talk so much more about food, food is what everyone resonates with,” says NFU Deputy President, Minette Batters at the recent Ceredigion NFU Cymru annual conference.
Minette continued, “We must embrace the health agenda and the education agenda. There are enormous opportunities for agriculture with health, because what we produce on farm is fundamental to every healthy diet. Similarly with education, it’s about getting consumers on our side and the earlier in their lives we do this, the better.
“There’s got to be a moral obligation somewhere. With rising levels of obesity and the burden that puts on the health service not to mention food waste; we’re more often than not told that we can’t afford the time to teach children about the fundamentals of food, but I’d ask whether we can afford not to?
“Showing the general public what we do as an industry is so important and a great way of doing this is to get people of all ages out on farm. We’re doing some great stuff but we don’t showcase enough what we’re doing. The techniques of how we lobby as an industry are changing at a pace.
What we need to do is turn the wheel, there is tremendous public support and interest in food and in what we as farmers do, so let’s embrace this and engage more with the public, get them on side, and then with their support we can look forward to a better future for our industry.”
Huw Davies, Ceredigion NFU Cymru County Chairman said, “These are challenging times at the moment, all commodities are suffering, but we have a good story to tell and I agree with Minette that selling our food production stories will help to sell our products.”
HSBC Agriculture Director for Wales, Euryn Jones, agreed with Huw Davies that last year had been a difficult year for all sectors of the industry. He warned that farmers would need to be better prepared for volatility and reduced support payments in the future. He asked the audience to consider making use of the BPS online calculator that can be found on the Welsh Government website so that they can have an idea of their BPS payments for the next five years.
Huw Davies closed the evening by thanking Minette Batters for her address and HSBC bank for its generous sponsorship of the conference.
