Heading for another broken Tory promise

IS it the end of British farming? In last week’s Farmers Weekly a Leicestershire farmer vented his frustration at government neglect of British farming.

He could not believe the Trade Secretary’s claim that a deal to import New Zealand lamb wouldn’t affect British farmers because British lamb was “seasonal”!

They didn’t even mention the carbon impact of transporting lamb 12,000 miles from the other side of the world. The Australian deal is far, far worse.

This farmer lamented the loss of farm products caused by pollution to water courses. The Government’s decision to allow even more raw sewage in our water courses just amazed him.

The Prime Minister’s woeful TV interview with Andrew Marr last month about the pig crisis provoked a wry smile.

After saying that the present

Prime Minister would not get his vote again, this farmer concluded “the world has gone bonkers”.

It’s true. The 2020 Agriculture Bill could destroy British farming. This government gives the impression that any trade deal is far more important than the health of our farming community or the quality of our food.

The National Farmers’ Union condemned the bill for its “absence of … any means of upholding

British farming production standards in the context of international trade negotiations”.

“UK farmers’ efforts,” they wrote, could “be undermined through the importation of products not produced to the same level of environmental or animal health/ welfare standards expected of them domestically.”

Are we heading for yet another broken manifesto promise on food quality and animal welfare?

Tony Mccobb,

Kirk Ella.