items tagged with Farming
Bill Cash demands Secretary of State explain data showing low dairy farm returns
Press release 11/08/09
Following a meeting in Slindon with dairy farmers from across Staffordhire, local MP, Bill Cash, has written to the Secretary of State for Agriculture, Hilary Benn, providing specific supply margin data which demonstrates the real challenges created for dairy producers. It clearly demonstrates how static farm returns do not match increasing costs of production, whilst over the same period retail margins have increasingly risen.
Bill Cash said “The impact is far reaching across the Staffordshire rural economy and is increasingly unsustainable for many businesses.
“I have also asked the Secretary of State for his position on a proposed retail Ombudsman.”
Bill Cash endorses Ombudsman report over botched payments scheme for local farmers
Press release 18/12/09
In response to the publication of the Parliamentary Ombudsman’s report on the administration of the 2005 Single Payment Scheme by the Rural Payments Agency, Bill Cash MP said:
“I have made many representations on behalf of local farmers over their payments through the Agency which falls under the control of the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, and it is clear to see that it has become a failure.
“Farmers in England receive about £1.6billion a year in subsidies from the Single Payment Scheme. However, the report makes clear that the Rural Payments Agency continued to tell farmers that it would keep to a payment timetable when it was clear it could not have made the payments and consequently, farmers suffered.
“I endorse their view that an appropriate remedy should be found where an injustice such as this one has been suffered as the consequence of maladministration by a public body.
“I would only add that the wholescale and proper reform of our governance arrangements in agriculture would depend on whether Britain is prepared takes back the powers it has handed over to the European Union on all vital agricultural matters, which should have always remained local, not supranational.”
Bill Cash MP puts down Early Day Motion to address severe problems in UK dairy industry
Press release 23/06/09
Stone MP, Bill Cash, last night put down an Early Day Motion (EDM 1724) calling for the Government to address the serious problems faced by the UK dairy industry. The EDM reads:
“That this House notes the severe problems facing the UK dairy industry; is dismayed by the collapse of the co-operative, Dairy Farmers of Britain; and urges the Government to support those numerous producers affected, whilst also requesting urgent action to be taken in tightening up EU and UK labelling requirements on all products of animal origin including dairy products, particularly cheese, so that misleading labelling is stamped out and that consumers can make informed choices about the dairy products they buy, and can clearly identify the country in which the animal was reared, and raw material produced and processed.”
Cash’s Early Day Motion comes ahead of the Conservatives ‘Dairy Summit’ to be held at the House of Commons on 17 July.
Bill Cash MP said “The Government must recognise that there are severe problems facing the UK dairy industry, and following the collapse of the co-operative, Dairy Farmers of Britain, the Government is obliged to support the affected producers.
“It is also well known in the UK farming sector that the Government has missed the boat on food labelling procedures. That must be put right and my Early Day Motion requests that urgent action is taken in tightening up the labelling requirements on all products of animal origin including dairy products, particularly cheese, so that we no longer have this misleading labelling.”
Bill Cash MP requests that Agriculture Minister respond to local farming concerns
Press release 16/06/09
Following up on a letter on local farming concerns which Bill Cash had sent to Agriculture Minister, Hilary Benn MP, on 1st April, and on which he had not yet received a reply, Cash asked the new farming minister, Jim Fitzpatrick for an urgent response to the concerns.
On the evening of Monday 15 June, in the House of Commons debate on Rural Communities, the following exchanges were recorded:
Mr. Cash: With respect, the Minister has already said something about his predecessor, and I rise to make a simple point. I wrote to DEFRA on 1 April with a detailed request for certain pieces of information that are highly relevant to this debate. I still have not received a reply, and on behalf of my farmers, who have been having a very difficult time, I ask the Minister to make sure that I receive one as soon as possible.
Jim Fitzpatrick: I am only too pleased to apologise to the hon. Gentleman on behalf of the Department, and I will endeavour to look up his correspondence and respond at my earliest opportunity. . . .
Only 10 minutes after the parliamentary debate, an official from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs telephoned Mr. Cash’s office to obtain the unanswered letter, and promised to have a response drafted urgently.
Mr. Cash awaits that urgent response so that he can get to the bottom of those ongoing concerns within the local farming industry.
Bill Cash MP slams new EU deal for British dairy farmers
Press release 20/10/09
As farmers protested outside talks in Luxembourg against low milk prices and plummeting incomes, Bill Cash MP said:
“Given the historic failure of European Union interference and subsidies in agricultural markets, I am hardly surprised that the EU Agriculture Commissioner wants to doll out £250 million in next year's EU budget to prop up the dairy sector. It is a sham. It is not in the interests of the UK dairy sector as a whole or local dairy farmers across Staffordshire.”
“This new top-up simply means that Brussels wants to continue the old regime of subsidies, which is not in anyone’s interest in the United Kingdom.”
It follows Mr. Cash’s earlier meeting in Slindon with dairy farmers from across Staffordshire, when he wrote to the Secretary of State for Agriculture, Hilary Benn, providing specific supply margin data which demonstrates the real challenges created for dairy producers.
Cash said: “The impact of the existing system is far reaching across the Staffordshire rural economy and is increasingly unsustainable for many businesses.
Before the parliamentary recess, Cash had put down an Early Day Motion (EDM 1724) calling for the Government to address the serious problems faced by the UK dairy industry. The EDM reads:
“That this House notes the severe problems facing the UK dairy industry; is dismayed by the collapse of the co-operative, Dairy Farmers of Britain; and urges the Government to support those numerous producers affected, whilst also requesting urgent action to be taken in tightening up EU and UK labelling requirements on all products of animal origin including dairy products, particularly cheese, so that misleading labelling is stamped out and that consumers can make informed choices about the dairy products they buy, and can clearly identify the country in which the animal was reared, and raw material produced and processed.”
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