Welsh dairy 'of great importance' says Prince Charles on summer tour

Speaking as he was touring a dairy plant in LLanbadarn Fawr, near Aberystwyth he said he hoped to make an 'enormous difference' (Photo: Dan Marsh)
Speaking as he was touring a dairy plant in LLanbadarn Fawr, near Aberystwyth he said he hoped to make an 'enormous difference' (Photo: Dan Marsh)

Prince Charles has described the dairy industry as of 'great importance' as he made his annual summer tour of Wales.

Speaking as he was touring a dairy plant in LLanbadarn Fawr, near Aberystwyth he said he hoped to make an 'enormous difference.'

"Not only in terms of sales but also in terms of the dairy sector in Wales which is of such great importance."

Afterwards, he opened the new extension at the plant and met the founder who opened the dairy in 1982.

'Derailed for good'

Charles later spoke to a sustainability conference in Llandovery College, Carmarthenshire where he said humanity's place on Earth could be 'derailed for good' if 'terrifying' environmental issues are not tackled.

The Prince of Wales said British farms have been reduced to 'little more than factories' and must be brought into greater harmony with the planet.

"This is why I find it so unbelievable when people ask why we should bother with the conservation and protection of the Earth’s dwindling biodiversity, or why we should strive to make the terrifying environmental issues we now face such a priority," he said.

'Diversity of life'

Charles said: "It is, of course, the diversity of life on Earth which actually enables us to have our being."

"Deplete it, reduce it, erode and destroy it and we will succeed in causing such disorder that we risk derailing humanity’s place on Earth for good.

"In my lifetime I have watched the industrialisation of food production turn the living organism of an individual farm into little more than a factory, where finite raw materials are fed in at one end and food of varying quality comes out the other."