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.
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.
