1st February 2010
Labour Candidate Calls for Backing for Farmers
Donna Hutton, Labour’s Parliamentary Candidate for much of Conwy and Denbighshire, has said any help from Europe for agriculture should be more fairly distributed.
Ms Hutton met last week with Derek Vaughan, Labour Member of the European Parliament, to find out about the impact on farming from new European funding arrangements.
EU “Convergence Funding”, to help poorer areas to increase their wealth, ends in 2013. As matters stand, no more money will come to Wales. Mr Vaughan is in negotiation to try to make sure this does not happen.
“I believe a review of the Common Agriculture Policy, thought to favour farmers on mainland Europe, could release money to help British agriculture, but it is early days”, said Ms Hutton.
“Many farms in Conwy and Denbighshire are run by families and are very small businesses, so I want to make sure anything that is achieved benefits them first and foremost.
“Some people think it odd that, as a vegetarian, I am not ‘anti-farmer’. Well, apart from wondering who they think grows my food, I am actually very ‘pro-farmer’!
“Most of our farmers do a really wonderful job, and I just wish people would support them more by insisting on buying British produce. Whether it is to preserve British jobs, to reduce transport emissions for the environment, or because our farmers are the best on animal welfare, we have to support British agriculture.
“With the world being a more dangerous place and the possibility of others holding Britain to ransom, we need to grow as much food domestically as possible.
“Huge swathes of the constituency I intend to represent, Clwyd West, are dependent on farming, so I will be working as hard as I can to promote their interests”.
ENDS.