A South Cumbrian MP has called for the government to shore up the future of the UK farming industry.
Westmorland and Lonsdale MP Tim Farron has issued a parliamentary motion calling for the government to intervene to guarantee UK food security by tackling the steady decline in the number of farm units due to financial pressures.
Mr Farron, who is also the Liberal Democrat countryside spokesman, says that this decline is due to developments such as the decline in the quota price of milk in the past 20 years, which has crashed from around 32 pence per litre in 1988 to around one penny per litre in 2008.
Mr Farron said: "It is imperative that British farmers receive a fair deal in their trading with supermarkets.
"While I appreciate that the market should be the arbiter of prices that should not mean that powerful big businesses have the right to push around the producers.