NFU Cymru meets with new Environment Minister
NFU Cymru has met with the Welsh Government’s new Environment Minister, John Griffiths, and took the opportunity to explain how farming and the environment are intrinsically linked.
Ed Bailey, President and Stephen James, Deputy President of NFU Cymru, met John Griffiths AM, the Minister for Environment and Sustainable Development in Cardiff Bay.
Mr Bailey explained to the new Minister during the meeting, "We are in no doubt that food production and managing, caring and enhancing the environment can, and do, go hand in hand. We have significant challenges ahead of us in that we need to produce more food to feed a growing population but at the same time we need to impact less on the environment. This we can do with the right help and support from Government but we need to have full engagement with Government from an early stage of any policy developments that could impact on farmers."
On the subject of bovine TB the NFU Cymru President expressed his dismay with the Minister’s recent statement to Plenary announcing an independent review of the scientific evidence. Mr Bailey said " Given that the Minister is committed to an independent review the review must be short and sharp; otherwise the desperate situation faced by farmers in the Intensive Action Area where the incidence of bovine TB continues to increase despite the severe cattle control and biosecurity measures in place will continue to get worse.
Mr Bailey also seized the opportunity to iron out issues he had regarding the different ministerial portfolios. With two Ministers and a Deputy Minister each having parts of the rural affairs brief the Union is concerned that on issues such as livestock controls and regulation there may be confusion over who takes the lead. Mr Bailey said, "Given the intrinsic link between animal health and the economic wellbeing of individual farm businesses and agriculture in general we hope that there will be close and regular dialogue between Mr Griffiths, Edwina Hart AM and Alun Davies AM."
Other issues within the Minister’s portfolio discussed during the meeting were NVZs, TAN 8 and the Natural Environment Framework.
Mr Bailey said, "The message we particularly wanted to get across during our first meeting with the new Environment Minister was that farmers manage, and care for, over 80% of the land area in Wales and it is vitally important that any policy to do with the environment must incorporate farmers and their representatives. We hope that this meeting will be the start of a good working relationship."
