Memorandum submitted by Mrs Chris Thomas
(RAS 33)
BACKGROUND
1. Born in South Wales Valleys, to a family
of farmers (but not my parents) paid for myself to go through
agricultural college. Married, five children, we farm 300 owned
acres plus additional 350 rented. 700 beef cattle producing prime
finished beef. I do all tractor work, ie ploughing (250 acres/year),
cultivations, bailing etc. I do cattle paperwork and campsite
paperwork. Geraint and Charlie (our oldest daughter (18)) do all
husbandry work, construction work etc. We cannot afford to employ
anyone, other than contractors to plant maize and fencing. I came
2nd to Welsh Woman farmer of the year 2004, we hosted the Welsh
National Ploughing Match 2005.
2. Farming is my passion, it's my life and
my love, I would not and could not ever think of not farming,
but we must all accept change. "Farming is not just a job,
it's a way of life"—How many times have we heard that,
and yet, if current policy trends continue, it will be a way of
life for very few in future years.
3. Farming is not something which can be
learnt just from books, it is bred into you—it is in the
fibre of your genes.…Yet, in as much as it could be bred
in—it can be bred out too.
4. Who will be farming our countryside in
50 years time? One of my most serious concerns for agriculture
is the total lack of foresight regards looking after and nurturing
the younger generations. With "pure agricultural courses"
being swallowed up, and replaced by "diversifications qualifications"
I worry, are there enough fully qualified and properly bred young
people to take over custody of the land?
5. Farming is being pummelled and moulded
into an "ideal formula" by this Government and this
cannot be done with any future thought. For far too long we have
had ministers put in charge of this most specialist subject—ministers
who have no practical, emotional and mental needs of agriculture
and its workforce.
6. One of my all-time favourite lecturers
in agricultural college had a great saying—"Common
sense is a sense not common to everyone", and I feel this
is very true regarding the policy makers of today's agricultural
industry.
7. Take the Single Farm Payment. This whole
fiasco has been turned into nothing more than an enormous white
elephant—its purpose was two fold, to remove payments linked
to production, and to encourage the older generation to retire
and pave the way for a new and younger workforce. The reality
could not be more different, or further from the truth.
8. The older farmer now has the best government
funded pension policy of his entire life, for he can now sell
his entire stock, rent out his land and yet he can still pick
up—in the majority of cases—a very healthy cheque
for doing absolutely nothing, while others, being unsuccessful
in their bid for entitlements from the National Reserve, are farming
with no financial help while producing a commodity.
9. This ridiculous situation does two detrimental
things for farmers and farming alike. Firstly, the old boys desire
to keep the entitlement payments have shot the price of rental
land and grass keep through the roof—as farmers like us
who find ourselves with more entitlements than owned land have
to pay through the nose for land this year—grass keep is
up by as much as £50 in the Raglan/USK area.
10. Secondly, this new system does nothing
to help the public's perception of farmers. How can it be justified
to the tax paying public that we, for example, could sell all
our 700 cattle, rent out our 300 acres of land, yet still be paid
just under £1,000 a week in subsidies? The payments we now
have at least are put to good use, as a product is being created,
ie prime finished beef—but the system currently still allows
payment for non-production. No wonder there is no sympathy and
so much apathy aimed at us farmers.
11. Agriculture is Britain's last industry
we are now a consumer nation and not a producing nation. God forbid,
if there were ever a world war, we would never as a nation survive.
We depend on foreign imports to heat, clothe, feed and transport
us. If fuel was put up to £10 or £20 a gallon—which
could happen if we pick on Iran, we could not afford to import
food. What would happen—we as a country are completely beholden
to others to the extent we could be frozen and starved out of
our own country. Should our agricultural industry be sold down
the swanny as has our manufacturing, coal, steel, and construction
industries—now all vanished or taken over by imports. Agricultural
policy should be separate to government policy, which can move
the goal posts in an afternoon. It is a continuity of good, sound,
and reasoned policy that is required for the future.
12. There are more pages I could write,
and many more policies which I could tell you about that make
no sense to the farmer at all.
13. What carrot will the Government be able
to use after 2012 and the abolishing of subsidies to "police"
farming. We are currently farming in the "Big Brother"
countryside with spies both in the sky and in the neighbourhood.
What will happen to all those employed at BCMS, Defra, regional
Affairs, inspectors etc etc when 2012 comes, the farmer is then
not entitled to any payments? No one can answer that.
14. At least let the farmers who are actually
getting their hands dirty and working hard, let them be the ones
to receive payment, and not pay people to sit in the house on
their back sides.
15. If Government want to remove the link
between payment and "over production" (although that
myth has long since been dispelled, or why import meat from food
and mouth endemic countries) then why not link payments to good
farming practice?
16. Arable payments could be given to producers
to enable individual farmers to install bio-fuel plants (cost
£26k) to fuel all arable cultivations—reducing emissions
and saving money on the ever increasing price of diesel. Where
farms could not individually justify individual plants, local
co-operatives could be set up.
17. Stock payments—should be aimed
at farmers who produce prime quality meats using good sound husbandry,
environmental and conservational practices. If cross compliance
does not want poaching of ground through winter grazing, bring
in 50% grants towards the cost of erecting new farm buildings
and handling systems and building environmentally sensitive slurry
stores.
18. Put payments into helping pay for quality
stock lines, to bring this country's whole meat production to
an overall standard of excellence. Let's give agriculture a low
interest borrowing rate as do France and some other EU countries.
Lets get the public on board, so as they are loyal to our product—we
do not need to fly in frozen sheep from New Zealand over 12,000
miles when as a nation we could feed ourselves.
19. Stop Britain becoming the "National
Park" of Europe, let us do what our prime land was intended
to do—produce the finest quality foods to feed our fine
nation of people.
June 2006
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