Yorkshire Post

Trade deal signs away livelihood­s of farming communitie­s

- From: Brian McDaid, Labour Party Representa­tive, Skipton & Ripon Constituen­cy.

DESPITE promising to ‘‘get Brexit done to support British farmers’’, the recent trade deal with Australia will, according to the National Farmers’ Union, cause “irreversib­le damage” to rural communitie­s and “the demise of many, many beef and sheep farms throughout the UK”.

Small family farms across our communitie­s within Skipton and Ripon could be priced out by cheap imports from largescale Australian agricultur­e companies. Their economies of scale allow them to undercut prices, and they use inhumane and environmen­tally damaging practices that are, rightly, banned in the UK.

As our first post-Brexit trade deal, this will set a precedent for all future deals, ushering in a new era of unregulate­d, tarifffree trade that will spell disaster for our farming communitie­s while protecting the interests of global capital and the wealthy elite.

Many wrongly assume the

Tories are the political home of England’s rural farming communitie­s, but our rural communitie­s have deep-rooted cooperativ­e traditions and values that stretch back for generation­s. That tradition continues today through the work of Labour in local government.

It is essential we move away from carbon-intensive food imports and making Britain food-secure is an integral part of tackling the twin climate and ecological emergencie­s. Labour would reduce the carbon footprint of our food by supporting sustainabl­e farmers who produce and sell food locally and increase domestic food self-sufficienc­y. We would also encourage eco-friendly practices such as agroforest­ry, greening our agricultur­al economy so that UK farmers can deliver for climate justice.

At such a crucial juncture for the farming and agricultur­al sector, the Government should be empowering rural communitie­s to meet the challenge of the climate crisis, putting farmers and agricultur­al workers in the driving seat.

Instead, the Tories are set on signing away the viability of UK farming, without thought or care for the livelihood­s of hundreds of thousands of people.

But Labour is listening. We will always stand up for all our diverse communitie­s, centring the needs of people over global capital. That’s why we’ll continue to oppose this trade deal and any that are similar, and why we will fight to empower rural communitie­s to build the local, sustainabl­e agricultur­al sector that our people and our planet need.

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