Farming is an integral part of our rural community here in North Yorkshire, and a top priority for me here in Richmond constituency. After countless farm-visits and a Farmers’ Forum, it was great to speak with DEFRA Secretary of State Liz Truss to speak with her about how the Government can be bolder and better at supporting our farmers.
I had the chance to outline some of the main talking points from my meetings with farmers around the constituency: six day standstill rules, CAP Greening requirement, food labelling and many more.
Thankfully, we could also talk about some examples of real progress being made. The Government is pushing the EU Agricultural Commissioner to review new CAP rules, and recently the Prime Minister stated he was open to expanding the remit of the Grocery Code Adjudicator. This follows on from the Adjudicator being granted the power to impose fines of up to 1 per cent of a company’s turnover. From April, many food products, including lamb, will have to show ‘county of origin’ labelling allowing consumers to know exactly when they are buying British produce.
Finally, in last week’s budget there was a real gem included for the local farming community: a commitment to allow farmers and growers to average their incomes over five years for tax purposes (as a pose to the current level of two years). This should minimise cash flow problems and better equip our farmers to deal with market volatility.