The main political parties’ long-term commitment to the produce industry will be tested when farmers and growers meet at the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) annual conference in Birmingham.
Leading politicians will join NFU president Peter Kendall on the main platform for the first session next Tuesday. DEFRA secretary of state Hilary Benn as well as Conservative and Liberal Democrat shadow secretaries Nick Herbert and Tim Farron will answer questions posed by NFU members, in what promises to be an action-packed session coming just weeks before a General Election.
Kendall said: “The NFU has worked hard in the past few years to emphasise why farming matters and convince politicians of our industry’s value. Delivering Farming’s Future is about how we rise to the challenges that we all face and how farmers and growers will work with government, scientists and our customers to deliver that future.”
The political, business and environmental sessions will see a wealth of speakers debate the future of farming and food production over two days.
Edward Garner, communications director for Kantar Worldpanel and David Yiend, chief executive of AB Agri, will look at the consumers of the future and what they will demand from agriculture and horticulture.
On day two, Lord Hunt, minister of state for the department of energy and climate change, will be joined by Environment Agency chairman Lord Smith, University of York chairman of biochemistry Professor Dianna Bowles OBE and Professor Chris Pollock from the Institute of Biological, Environment and Rural Science at Aberystwyth University, to debate the environmental challenges that British farming faces as it strives to play its part in feeding a global population.
A political question time will complete the conference on Wednesday, when BBC broadcaster Edward Stourton will grill farming minister Jim Fitzpatrick, Jim Paice, shadow minister for agriculture and rural affairs, Liberal Democrat food, farming and rural affairs spokesman Roger Williams and Elfyn Llwyd, Plaid Cymru shadow minister for environment and rural affairs, on their parties’ manifestos for farming.
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