Memorandum submitted by Steve Cowley (RAS
21)
1. I would like to have an opportunity to
present to your committee at the Royal Show.
2. I am concerned that the UK government's
policy of relying on imported food is not sustainable for UK citizens.
Consumers are becoming more and more aware of the human and environmental
cost of their food, as it is often produced in third world countries
by people on low wages, with poor environmental controls and then
sent by air causing huge CO2 emissions. The CO2 emissions that
are caused by importing food should be factored into our commitment
to reduce green house gasses in the Kyoto Agreement. We are working
towards a carbon neutral business.
3. The decoupling of CAP payment from production
will become totally unacceptable to the British public when they
realize that farmers are being paid, provided they keep it tidy,
just to own land. When these payments stop we will not be able
to compete with our neighbours in Europe or others around the
world. So what then will happen to the great British countryside
shaped by farmers over thousands of years and valued by many as
an asset to business and the community?
4. Defra either by design or incompetence
seems to be putting the British farmer at a great disadvantage
to all our food producing competitors. Single farm payments and
cross compliance has been used as a sledge hammer to threaten,
bully, humiliate and degrade the work of farmers. Farmers generally
want to produce food for UK consumption, take care of their land
and make some sort of living.
5. If we are driven down the path we seem
to be going we will see the countryside as a place of recreation
and nothing more. We as a nation will loose the ability to produce
our own food just at a time when global warming reduces the world's
ability or willingness to feed us.
6. I have a diversified farm on the Isle
of Wight where we provide services for visitors, horse owners
and others but now produce little food. I have been a county chairman
of the NFU after my Father and Grandfather (I am no longer a member).
I have been chairman of the local Parish Council, Deputy Leader
of the Borough Council and Deputy Leader of the County Council.
I have also presented the case of the Isle of Wight at local,
regional, national and European levels.
7. I have led groups who have presented
to Ministers and I have addressed to European Parliament committees.
8. Now I just care for the environment and
my family.
June 2006
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