Farmers vow to work with ‘militant’ vegan

Much has been made of Labour MP and vegan Kerry McCarthy assuming the role, particularly after she was quoted in an interview with vegan magazine Viva!life as saying she was a “militant” when it came to cutting meat consumption and that meat should be treated in the same way as tobacco, with public campaigns to stop people eating it.

But ahead of a members’ meeting to discuss the Labour Party’s food security strategy last night, the leader of the National Farmers’ Union, Meurig Raymond, said the union would cast any differences aside during what remained a troubled time for farmers suffering from depressed prices for their produce.

Speaking before an NFU meeting in Brighton, Mr Raymond said: “There has been much made of the appointment of Kerry McCarthy as Labour’s shadow Defra Secretary of State. We will of course be looking to meet at the earliest opportunity and hope to work closely and productively with her in the coming months to demonstrate our key asks of present and any future government.

“Labour remain as the largest opposition party in Westminster so it is important to engage with the party on areas of commonality rather than dwelling on areas of difference. Building upon the Labour Food 2030 plan, a national food plan was a key Labour manifesto pledge and that’s what we will be focusing on in Brighton.”

He said now is the time for Labour to show how they intend to back British farming.

“Everybody is well aware of the crisis that has enveloped the farming industry with plummeting farm gate prices and a continued downward trend in global markets for household essentials like milk,” Mr Raymond said.

“Sustainably increasing production is a challenge I know farmers are up for, but they need to have the tools which make it possible for them to have a viable future in order to produce Great British food, such as an agri-food strategy to grow UK production and reverse the long-term decline in self-sufficiency.”

Despite months of receiving prices below the cost of production for their milk, the Royal Association of British Dairy Farmers estimate that only 60 per cent of dairy farmers are aware of their own production costs.

The RABDF’s policy director Tim Brigstocke said those farmers were making their task trickier and he urged them to adopt five-year plans in order to help cope with price volatility.

He said: “Unless they start to measure production costs and ensure that figure takes into account family labour and provision for retirement, then they will remain unable to fully understand the true profitability of their businesses.

“We would also urge all dairy farmers to know exactly what their milk buyer wants in terms of volume, profile and constituents, in other words they must know their contract and how to maximise milk price.

“Finally, they must have a five-year plan that is realistic and achievable in order to be able to accurately budget income and expenditure in a potential volatile marketplace.”