“To safeguard our domestic food supply, we must build resilience to climate volatility.”
NFU Deputy President Paul Tompkins quoted in the Daily Mail
Fly-tipping
NFU Hertfordshire member Will Dickinson was interviewed by The Times after his neighbour finally had 200 tonnes of fly-tipped rubbish removed from his land with the help of an online fundraiser set up by a member of the public following NFU campaigning about the incident. Will said organised criminal gangs in the UK are “taking advantage of a broken system”.
He also spoke to Times Radio (3:40:00) about the story, highlighting how fly-tipping is “enormously problematic for UK agriculture”.
Times Radio (40:00) later interviewed Archie Ford, who was the member of the public behind the online fundraising page. Archie praised the “excellent” work of the NFU in helping to tackle rural fly-tipping.
Weather
Much of this week’s news coverage has focused on the extreme weather, as soaring temperatures means several heat warnings have been issued by the Met Office.
NFU Deputy President Paul Tompkins was quoted by the Daily Mail in an article about the heatwave, which includes warnings from the National Drought Group that dry conditions in the spring months have increased the risk of drought.
Paul highlighted the importance of farmers and growers having access to water to sustain crop production and stressed the need for the industry to build resilience to climate volatility.
Brexit
This week has also seen many articles published on the 10-year anniversary of the Brexit referendum.
NFU President Tom Bradshaw was interviewed by The Guardian as part of an analysis piece on Brexit. Tom spoke about the impact on farming since the UK left the Union, saying that although headline budgets are similar post-Brexit, they have effectively been “static” as they have not kept pace with inflation.
The Mirror has also quoted Tom saying that Brexit has “completely reshaped the landscape of British agriculture” in its referendum-anniversary coverage.
NFU Kent member Alaistair Brooks has also spoken about how Brexit impacted his business in an interview with The Guardian. Alastair highlighted how his business stopped trade with the EU post-Brexit and the impact of changes to seasonal workers for farmers.
Hare coursing
NFU Vice-president Robyn Munt was on Channel 4 News (14:40) this week speaking about the impact of hare coursing on farmers after discussing the issue at a roundtable with Essex Police last week.
NFU East member Matthew Register – who suffered more than 200 hare coursing incidents in eight months – and NFU Bedfordshire and Huntingdonshire Chair Freya Morgan were also interviewed for the programme.
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