Merseyside farmers agree to help city’s shadow farming minister

A host of industries thrive in and around Liverpool but farming isn’t one of those that you’d necessarily associate with the city.

In the Liverpool, Sefton, Wirral and Merseyside areas there are just 258 farm holdings out of a national total of 105,449.

On 7 October 2013, Garston and Halewood MP Maria Eagle was chosen by Labour leader Ed Miliband to be his Shadow Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs department – commonly known as Defra.

The department is in existence to ensure a sustainable supply of food for the UK market and export. Its remit includes supporting and developing British farming, and encouraging sustainable food production.

The National Farmers’ Union (NFU) in the North West therefore set up a meeting for Maria at a business belonging to one of her farmer constituents, with the intention of creating a group of local farmers which the Shadow Secretary of State can use as a sounding board in her new role.

The meeting took place today (Friday 15 November) at Olly Harrison’s Water Lane Farm in Tabock, Prescot.

Olly said: “In the next 50 years farmers have to provide more food for the global population than we have in the last 10,000 years of agriculture. To achieve that goal we’re going to need the help of our politicians.

“Showing the Shadow Secretary of State around the farm has been beneficial for us and hopefully an interesting experience for Maria. Farmers on Merseyside are a minority but we do represent a large section of the area’s economic wealth.”

Maria Eagle MP said: "As a country we need to talk more about farming, we need to show a greater understanding about where our food comes, how it is being produced and crucially how it affects our environment. It’s a great privilege to be tasked with the responsibility for being the Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, and it's great to able to visit a farm in my constituency.”

Amongst the attendees were farmers from the constituency including Ian Bennett, John Garton-Pope, Graham Lund and Martin Patrick (who has a turf growing business).