Farmers from pressure group Enough is Enough light bonfires on farms across Wales to highlight agriculture’s lack of prominence in general election campaign
Farmers lit bonfires across Wales on 1 July to highlight the importance of agriculture ahead of the general election.
According to BBC News, bonfires were organised by farmers’ pressure group Enough is Enough and took place across Wales on Monday evening.
The main bonfire was held at Shadog Farm, Pentre-cwrt, near Llandysul, Ceredigion, the BBC reported. The protest was reportedly supported by farming unions and rural businesses that mainly rely on agriculture.
One of the Welsh farmers who participated, Gary Howells, told BBC News that farming had not been given enough attention during the election campaign, despite the fact that agriculture is a devolved issue.
He said: “As a group, we’re not very happy with how food security and agriculture has been talked about during the pre-election campaign.
“We’ve heard nothing about it. We talk a lot about the cost of food in the supermarkets.
“We witnessed with the Ukraine war, what can happen in a very short time. We have to make sure that we sustain our self-sufficiency.”
Mr Howells also expressed frustration with a “lack of progress” in negotiations with the Welsh government over issues like the new Sustainable Farming Scheme (SFS) and rules to control agricultural pollution, which are set to be introduced in October.
A Welsh government spokesperson told the BBC: “We are beginning work to review agricultural pollution regulations, which is crucial to achieving our shared aims of an economically and environmentally sustainable farming sector.
“The process of appointing an independent, external chair to oversee the review is underway and we look forward to sharing more information shortly.
“Since the introduction of the control of agricultural pollution regulations, we have offered over £31 million of direct support towards on-farm infrastructure investments to help farmers meet the requirements.”
