Stock farming campaign steps up a gear

Feb 28 2008 by Tom Patterson, The Journal

PEOPLE power is being harnessed in a National Farmers’ Union campaign to highlight the importance of beef and sheep farming to the countryside, economy and environment.

Launched in November, the NFU’s Why Beef and Sheep Farming Matters campaign is now being taken to a new level with regional cooking roadshows being organised across the country.

Alongside farming organisations like the NFU and the English Beef and Lamb Executive are ranged the Campaign to Protect Rural England, the Townswomen’s Guild, the National Council of Women and the Women’s Farming Union.

A survey produced for the NFU by YouGov reported that 72% of shoppers want to be able to buy British beef and lamb and 80% think supermarkets should be offering farmers a fair deal.

NFU president Peter Kendall said: “It doesn’t surprise me at all that the vast majority of consumers want to buy British beef and lamb.

“But the plain fact is that unless farmers’ prices start to rise to fill the yawning gap between what it costs to produce beef cattle and sheep and what farmers are paid for them, British beef and lamb will become niche products.

“That will be bad for consumers, bad for farming, bad for employment in the meat industry and bad for the countryside.

“That is why we are calling on people who care about where their beef and lamb comes from, and who care about the countryside where it is produced, to put pressure on the supermarkets to start the process of lifting farmers’ prices to a sustainable level.”