National Farmers Union

The strategic importance of upland farming was at the centre of a summit held in North Wales.

The summit brought together representatives from NFU, NFU Cymru, NFU Scotland and Ulster Farmers Union to discuss shared concerns, differences in devolved policy development and future opportunities in the UK's upland areas.

They highlighted that active farming is essential to maintain the fabric of the uplands.

The discussions followed a challenging summer for upland farming communities throughout the UK, dominated by prolonged droughts and large-scale wildfires.

It's very encouraging that the new prime minister has also been talking about farming and rural businesses and rural communities, uh, in a very positive way, and understanding that we need to, to, to better ensure that rural communities are properly represented right across government.

But Lady McIntosh, a Conservative, said the National Farmers Union was calling urgently for more reservoirs to be built on agricultural land.

The noble lady has frequently stated she's in favor of on-farm reservoirs, and yet, at the moment, there is an inconsistency in the guidance and planning for permitted development rights.

Lady Hayman replied that funding had been announced for the construction of farm reservoirs as part of the response to drought, but the planning process did need to be improved.

No, I think it is get- it, it is.

And if you look at the data, uh, uh, and the incidents, uh, whether you're looking at National Crime Survey, whether, whether you're looking at the NFU claims data which comes out with their big survey when they do their big thing in the spring every year, um, yeah, there's more of it going on, whether that's dog worrying, uh, uh, sorry, livestock worrying by dogs, whether it's petty theft, uh, whether it's really organized theft.

We've said those whole waves of, you know, where people have been going out, gangs, couple of gangs been doing the whole country, clearing out, um, sat- tractor sat navs and navigation systems, guidance systems.

And then right through to the really horrible stuff, the industrial stuff, like the blooming fly tipping.

And sticking with politics, uh, this week, uh, in Parliament, Back British Farming day.

Yeah, really good show.

A tour de force by the NFU.

Back British Farming day, which is the annual, um, get-behind-farming thing where they make MPs or they ask MPs to wear... [laughs] They make.

Back in 2009...

when we were discussing the new EU approval system, the hazard criteria, the UK National Farmers Union, who, by the way, are basically the political wing of the pesticide industry, came out with a statement that if these were passed, we'd never grow a carrot in the UK ever again.

They were passed, and carrots are one of the only things that we're self-sufficient in the UK.

When we called for restrictions on neonicotinoids, the pesticide industry said they'd lose, I don't know, £39 billion today.

The most shocking thing that I've come across in my time is the complete and utter absence of any attention on farmers being poisoned by pesticides.

This is true of the UK, less so of the EU, but even so.

That comes from... like the National Farmers Union, who were supposed to represent their farmers, but also the Ministry of Health and others.

And that complete and utter ignoring of the plight of farmers, highlighted, I think, in particular by sheep farmers who were poisoned in the 1980s by organophosphate sheep dips that were... mandatory for them to use to allow us to sell sheep to France.

at the end.

And just the very bit that I was listening to yesterday, I think she's referencing that period of time when she first became president of the NFU and the backlash around that from male farmers and things like that.

But she cites the Brexit vote and said something along the lines of farmers are electing to vote Leave because they assumed it would mean less bureaucracy being imposed on them from the EU.

And I guess in broad terms, that'd be right, right?

I left without it.

I thought I had it, didn't have it, and then, uh, rang Tom, my husband, to ask if he could drop it at Tom Rebettge, who is, um, Regional Director of NFU, who was coming up for Back British Farming Day.

He then missed his train on the back of it.

It then got to London.

It was supposed to go to Tom Bradshaw, who then delegated it to Ian, who is the chair of the dairy board, who then left it in the NFU office at Transport House.

I then got on a bike, on an Uber bike in heels, and cycled across London to pick said microphone up.

So, um, I feel like I need to probably just pin it to me from now on.

[laughs]