In the week when farmers have stepped up their campaign to get a fairer deal for milk prices Taunton Deane MP Rebecca Pow invited Secretary of State for Environment Food and Farming to get to grips with the serious financial issues currently facing farmers around Taunton and Wellington. A delegation of farmers representing a range of enterprises and environmental interests put their case to Minister Liz Truss and then presented her with a letter calling for help in specific sectors.

‘Virtually every agricultural sector is under pressure from  falling commodity prices, it’s not only the milk price that has fallen so low that many farmers can’t make a profit, the same is happening right across the piste from grain to lamb and beef. I wanted the Secretary of State to see the situation for herself and to realise just how important it is to support our local producers, to promote British produce and to work with key buyers like the supermarkets to ensure that British producers are treated fairly with customers being able to see clearly what is local and seasonal and where it comes from because from my own researches I know they are interested in this!’

The meeting took place at Cambria Farm, where the harvest was underway and arable and chicken farmer Paul Vaughn France explained the demands his particular sectors of agriculture are facing:

‘We are under a lot of pressure because we have a lot of high input prices and low commodity prices when we are trying to sell goods. We accept that we are in a world economy but we are under stress and being able to raise our concerns with government is obviously important.’

Secretary of State Liz Truss said:

"It was great to be invited to Taunton by Rebecca to meet local farmers and to hear first-hand about the challenges and opportunities facing the industry.

"British farming has the potential to be world-leading and that's why we are determined to work with industry to help it through it the difficult time it faces, to ensure it can capitalise on its world-wide reputation for safe, traceable and above all tasty food."

Together with the farmers, Rebecca also raised concerns about changing greening criteria which may result in fewer farmers setting aside field pollinator strips which could have a detrimental effect not only on insects but also on the vole population which is so important for our barn owls.

Farmers called for a range issues to be considered to ease their situation. These included ensuring that their Basic Payments are made in full and on time;  increasing the powers of the Groceries Code Adjudicator to cover retailers with turnovers of less than £1bn as well as to cover secondary producers and  to allow the GCA to instigate investigations; and clearer labelling on country of origin on produce so that the consumer can make an informed choice to buy British lamb (as opposed to New Zealand) or cheese made with British milk, rather than Australian, Milk or Irish milk.