This opinion piece first appeared in the Western Mail on Tuesday, February 13th.
Welsh farmers will be protesting outside the Welsh Parliament. That much is now pretty clear given the Welsh Government’s current relationship, or lack thereof, with rural Wales.
This movement, this momentum of farmers and rural Wales coming together at Welshpool mart and Carmarthen mart to stand shoulder to shoulder with each other while their livelihoods could well be at stake, is unlike anything I’ve seen in my life.
There is no age limit. The old stand with the young to ensure they have a future in farming. The young stand with the old with steely determination to carry on the farming legacy.
But this undercurrent of bubbling frustration within rural Wales started long before the Sustainable Farming Scheme consultation.
Take your pick. It could be the Welsh Government’s failure to eradicate Bovine TB in Wales. Or perhaps an all-Wales NVZ regulation that demands ‘farming by calendar’ from Wales’ food producers. It could even be the proposed changes to the school term, potentially impacting one of Wales’ most important cultural events, the Royal Welsh Show, to the tune of £1 million.
In fact, it’s all this and more.
Being the Rural Affairs Shadow Minister isn’t just a portfolio for me, it’s personal. As a farmer’s son and a former Young Farmer, I’ve seen and heard from those in the sector my whole life.
I’ve had friends in tears on the phone as their cattle are taken away to be slaughtered due to Bovine TB.
Farmers from across Wales have reached out to me in desperation at the situation they find themselves in.
And I’ve seen the frustration in my father’s eyes as more and more bureaucratic pressure is put on Welsh farmers.
I’ll make no apology for standing up for my friends, the farmers, or my father, against this Labour Government.
But the protests weren’t always inevitable.
I wrote to the Rural Affairs Minister asking her to pause the consultation given the strength of feeling. Pause, allow the temperature to cool and really work with farmers and the unions to come up with a workable policy.
Those calls were ignored.
I’ve raised before the need for a wholistic approach to eradicating TB in Wales, dealing with it in livestock, and wildlife.
Those calls were ignored.
I’ve pushed for changes to the NVZ rules so that farmers aren’t at the mercy of the weather or the calendar.
Those calls were ignored.
These calls weren’t just mine and the Welsh Conservative’s alone.
NFU Cymru and the FUW have both worked tirelessly on behalf of their membership, trying to get the real-world implications of Labour policy through to Welsh Government.
And yet here we find ourselves.
Please don’t think that farmers are reluctant to change, though.
Farmers know that they are best placed to help tackle some of the environmental issues facing Wales and they are ready to play their part.
But don’t take them for fools. Don’t undervalue what they are already doing in helping protect our environment all while producing sustainable, traceable, high-quality food that we should all be rightly proud of.
What happens next though is important. How the Welsh Government reacts to this feeling of frustration, anger and despondency could define the tenure of Wales’ next First Minister.
Farming needs a friend. The Welsh Conservatives make no apology for being that friend and standing up for our farmers and our rural communities.
