Fears trade deals ‘pose threat to Wales’s future’
“SKEWED” trade deals that offer little benefit to Wales pose a real threat to the future of the country’s language and culture, worried farmers have claimed.
Anything that damages the agricultural industry is likely to undermine the foundations of cultural life in Wales, according to the FUW.
Not only does farming underpin the rural economy, it also contributes to numerous community organisations and events, and the maintenance of rural schools, said the union.
FUW policy officer Teleri Fielden said the potential phasing out of direct support, against a backdrop of unfavourable trade deals such as those recently agreed with Australia and New Zealand, could bring the whole edifice tumbling down.
“Truly unique to Wales is the persistence of a Celtic language in large numbers of Welsh communities,” she said. “That number is highly dependent on the agricultural sector. If our family farms suffer because of those trade deals, it would have far-reaching repercussions.”
Teleri joined an FUW delegation that hosted a four-farm tour of Meirionnydd for constituency MP Liz Saville-roberts. Trade issues took centre stage on a day when low and declining farm incomes were highlighted to the visiting politician.
Among those opening the gates to their farms on the day were Farmers Marts president Huw Roberts, who stocks 750 Welsh breeding ewes and 52 sucklers on 150ha at Y Gyrn, Llanuwchllyn. The farm is a signatory to Glastir Advanced.
Also in an environmental scheme is Pantyneuadd, a 195ha unit at Parc which is home to 360 Welsh ewes and 21 sucklers.
The farm entered Tir Cymen in 1993, when Meirionnydd was chosen as a pilot area for the scheme, and Arwel Davies signed up for Glastir in 2014. Ms Saville-roberts heard that trade deals that increase food imports will compromise climate change targets whilst reducing Wales’s own capacity to produce food.
Teleri accused the UK Government of hypocrisy. “Liberal trade deals will hand over control of food production emissions to countries with far less regard for such matters,” she said. Edwin Jones, FUW Meirionnydd chairman, said inappropriate afforestation was another threat both to the environment and to social cohesion in rural Wales. He highlighted concerns over the rise in land purchases by companies and individuals from outside Wales in order to offset carbon via tree planting.
“Growth and speculation in the carbon offsetting market appears to be the major factor in the recent buying up of large areas of Welsh farmland for tree planting by individuals and companies from outside Wales,” he said. “In order to avoid the economic, social and environmental devastation in the past, it is essential that the UK Government considers how this market should operate.”
The four farms visited are typical family farms that underpin Welsh culture but which face an uncertain future in the face of declining incomes and dwindling subsidies. Along with extra regulations, the onslaught of threats represent a “major threat to their very existence”, said Edwin Jones.