In addition to campaigning, as an MEP Candidate it is extremely important to support events across the South West region and to be visible and accessible within the wider community.
Over the Bank Holiday weekend, I went to the Devon County Show at Westpoint, Clyst St Mary on the outskirts of Exeter. I was pleased to learn that David Cameron attended another classic show this week, the Royal Bath and West Show in Shepton Mallet, Somerset, and held a Cameron Direct session engaging with and allowing locals to quiz him about a whole raft of issues.
The agricultural shows that are held across the West Country during this period are a lot of fun and showcase the best that rural life has to offer. There is a definite rural community: those involved in farming and associated industries, those running small businesses that are the bread and butter of the rural economy and families and individuals who – like me – would list being part of a close knit community, enjoying a relaxed lifestyle and making a home against the backdrop of truly beautiful countryside, participating in rural activities and sports and enjoying wholesome West Country food in village pubs and farmers markets as some of the big plus points of country living. All these various groups are always well represented at agricultural shows.
The invitation to attend this year’s show came from Devon Conservative Future. They organised a stall where visitors from across Devon and the South West could pick up a large quantity of literature (those in rural areas do not always get the level of information that is given to those in built up areas), speak to the MEPs and MEP Candidates in attendance and could sign up to our ‘Sign up for Change’ petition to hold an immediate general election. As I arrived I could see CF activists from Plymouth and Exeter Universities, led by Ben Corbridge, Devon County Conservative Future Chairman, handing out Conservative Party leaflets, gathering signatures for the petition and generally engaging with locals. They truly did a sterling job!
After helping out at the CF stall, I went on a walkabout with Neil Parish MEP who is Chairman of the European Parliament’s Agriculture and Rural Development Committee. We met a number of local businessmen and those from the agriculture community, visited some of the excellent trade stands and enjoyed a cup of tea at one of the food tents with a ring-side view of the entertainment on offer at the show (including flying motorbikes, falconry, show jumping, performing dogs, vintage tractors and steam engines).
I also picked up a copy of a wonderful recipe book written by supporters of the Devon County Show called ‘The Very Best of Devon on a Plate’. As HRH The Prince of Wales, Patron of the Devon County Agricultural Association, wrote in its introduction, Devon’s “coastlines, moorland, rolling pastures, and sheltered estuaries…are a larder brimming with an enormous variety of produce: fresh fish, top-quality of meat, fruit, vegetables and, of course, an exceptional range of dairy produce – not least, its world-renowned clotted-cream.” I could not agree more!
We also spent considerable time talking to farmers at the cattle shed, which housed some of the finest livestock that the West Country has to offer. It is hardly surprising that many of the issues raised during the course of the day pertained to rural livelihoods and agriculture. British farmers are among the most efficient in Europe, but they have been badly let down by this Labour government – whether it be over continually ignoring calls for a cull of badgers to tackle Bovine TB, issues with the Single Farm Payments, or failing to properly press for further reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).
South West Conservative MEPs have worked closely with and stood up for the interests of our farmers. We will continue to push for further reform of the CAP and ensure that their voice – and the voice of rural communities – is heard.
Comment by agent 3244 on June 17, 2009 at 8:10 pm
Zahra, I entirely agree that Labour have been in office in the period when Bristish agriculture has suffered most, and I have to bow to your insight as to the suggested reasons offered.
I am most familiar with dairy farmers and my interest is prompted by the recent news of the collapse of one of their cooperatives, Dairy Farmers of Britain (DFoB).
Dairy farmers have been disillusioned by the return they get for the production of the raw commodity, and for some time. So they should, because they have little say in setting the price. Because of the unbalanced nature of our mature economy and because of the imbalance of power skewed to large enterprises it is those with the power, namely the big supermarkets, whose influence is so great that they can essentially impose a price upon the processor during contract negotiations and then the processor has to source the litres within the constraints of the price as fixed within processors contract with the supermarket. The price pressure is always downward and while the farmer can migrate between processors there is little to choose between them.
Small businesses have been unable to compete with the power of big business for some time now, because big business have more marketing muscle, greater lobbying leverage, and economies of scale. This is good according to the generally accepted view of things because it is considered efficient. It is only efficient because we do not factor the carbon consequence and the potential for climate change into the equation.
Here’s an example. A supermarket sells milk labeled as originating from that region. Customer thinks fewer truck miles associated with such ‘regional milk’ so that is good and green, right? No. The processor contracted to supply the milk to the supermarket closed down the plant it had in the region while expanding a plant in a neighbouring region. (Economy of scale?) So the milk is collected from farms in the region, trucked into the neighbouring region to be trucked back as bottled product. Worse still, the supermarkets and the processors notion on the region do not coincide exactly. the milk has to be segregated. TWO trucks start out of the region to collect milk from farms little more that a few miles apart. No doubt both the supermarket and processor have environmental statements and policies. Hypocrites! It’s blatant deception. Meanwhile, farmers who elect to sell to something in which they had a vested interest, DFoB, a cooperative, have lost out financially in a collapse because the cooperative could not compete with the multinational food group implicated in the above example.
There is a hierarchy of ‘capital’. Food is capital if you you struggle to get enough to feed yourself and your family; money becomes capital when you are wealthy enough not to have to worry about food; and finance becomes capital when you are wealthy enough to want more money out of sheer greed.
It is to do with evolutionary economics. In the competitive, uncertain, highly geared world, and unstable world of business the only rational is to chase sales, and to gobble up the competition before the competition gets the opportunity to gobble you. If a business then becomes large and influential enough its future is secured, it can be multinational when in profit, but nationalised when in collapse. I don’t like for folks to lose their jobs but I find the outcome distasteful and undemocratic. Since wealth was built on energy, and consumption energy is the principle contributor to GHG, then the green and economically wise thing to do would be pin the economy against a price on carbon. Adopt carbon as ‘capital’, because in the aforementioned hierarchy, carbon rules over all. I do not know that society could do any better that tie its’ economy into the carbon cycle. It might restore some stability and common sense.
http://www.fwi.co.uk/blogs/agribusiness/2009/06/milk-link-shows-just-what-a-co-op-can-do.html
Comment by christina a on July 4, 2009 at 10:50 am
Speaking as a member of the public I am getting more concerned by the day about the state of our food and the ordinary farmer [ who works far harder and more hours than the vast majority of people in all weathers and hours ]. Installed in me from childhood by my parents who grew most of the vegetables and soft fruits that we ate that all food should be of the best quality and grown locally. Throughout my life I have always tried to keep to that and if not sure looked for the British label. Believing that the government of this country would not allow lies to be told but time and time again I find that although meat – eggs – veg etc although they may have a Bristish sticker on it can mean that they have only been packed in this country.
This is WRONG – whenthey have British stickers on it must mean that –
1. they have been grown and well as packed in this country.
2. if a meat product the animal MUST have been born and lived the whole of its life on our farm land.
3. the EU must not be allowed to dictate to our farmers when and how to farm
4. we are allowing thousands more people into this country every day – why when we need our farmers more than ever are so many going bankrupt
5. the Milk that I but is always labeled British whole organic milk – again why are our milk farmers being forced out of business when we need this milk and we are importing more from other eu countries. Our farmers who are working to the same set of eu rules as in europe cannot therefore be any dearer than say a farm in France or are the eurpean farmers allowed to farm differently
Whoever is in power should stop or put a heavy surcharge on all overseas ( including in the eu ) food and dairy products that we can and should be producing in this country