East Anglias farming role highlighted

The traditional strength and importance of East Anglian farming, allied with renewed investment in the industry, could place the region at the "vanguard", a leading farmers’ leader will explain today at a high profile conference.

Speaking at the Growing Our Future Food conference, the NFU’s head of economic and international affairs Tom Hind will claim it would be "morally and economically wrong" to allow domestic food production to scale down.

The conference has been set up by the East of England Development Agency and is set to look at key aspects of the industry such as food security, agricultural research and development, skill shortages and planning policy.