Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Agenda for Farming


This week I'm spending time with farmers around Lanchester, and I'm delighted this coincides with the party's launch of "agenda for farming", covering a whole range of policies relating to agriculture.

There are five key summary points:
•Enabling increased production whilst protecting the environment;
•Promoting fair competition;
•Reducing the burden of regulation;
•Further reforming the Common Agricultural Policy;
•Taking action on animal disease.
Then there are two new policies:
•Introducing rules into the new national planning framework to prevent, in all but exceptional circumstances, the development of the most fertile farmland; and
•Fundamentally reforming the Rural Payments Agency by appointing the Farming Minister as chairman of its Management Board as a way of improving accountability, reducing costs and driving up performance.
It's about time we elected a government who both understood and respected the countryside.

2 comments:

NW Durham Voter said...

Dr Tempest,
The snow has given our beautiful landscape a picture-perfect feel. It's encouraging to see that you and the Conservatives have effective plans to preserve our countryside and help farmers secure strategic food security for our country. This is too important an issue to be left in the hands of people who haven't got a strong connection with our rural way of life.
Well done!

simon said...

Farming is almost lost here in Aus. So I wish you well in Britain to save it. Its just So important.