MEP TALKS FARMING AT THREE COUNTIES SHOW

5.00.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Mon 16th Jun 2008

L-R: Paul Rice (Warks NFU County Chairman), Julia Evans (former Herefordshire NFU County Chairman), David Collier (West Mids NFU Regional Director), Liz Lynne MEP and Cllr Dr Phil Bennion at the Three Counties Show in Malvern

Worcestershire Euro-MP Liz Lynne met President of the National Farmers' Union Peter Kendall and other senior members of the organisation at the Three Counties show on Friday to discuss reforms to EU agriculture policy and other farming issues.

Liz, who is LibDem Agriculture Spokesperson for England and Wales, was joined for the talks by farming expert and number two on the West Midlands LibDem candidate list for the 2009 European elections Dr Phil Bennion Staffordshire farmer and former agricultural advisor to Charles Kennedy.

Speaking after the event, Liz Lynne said:

"This latest meeting with the NFU board was very productive; we had a full and frank discussion which reaffirmed our common ground on issues such as opposition to the electronic tagging of individual sheep, which will add unnecessary cost, for no added benefit to the region's sheep farmers, but is popular with some EU Member State governments.

"Similarly we also remain opposed to the UK government's changes to the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Scheme, which are leaving local horticultural producers critically short of workers in the run up to the annual harvest. The scheme desperately needs to be extended again to non-EU countries so producers can get enough workers in before millions of pounds worth of fruit and veg rot before they can be picked.

"Farmers and rural communities have had a difficult time over the last couple of years, with Foot and Mouth Disease, Bluetongue, flooding and more. Man-made problems such as the rural payments shambles and changes in seasonal workers' rules are also clearly not helping."

Phil Bennion added: "We also looked at the way the surge in fuel and grain prices is affecting farmers in the county. Some sectors are doing relatively well, but the 'honeymoon' period for grain producers definitely seems to be wearing off while producers who depend on animal feed deliveries have seen costs go through the roof."

ENDS

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Photo 5: L-R: Paul Rice (Warks NFU County Chairman), Julia Evans (former Herefordshire NFU County Chairman), David Collier (West Mids NFU Regional Director), Liz Lynne MEP and Cllr Dr Phil Bennion at the Three Counties Show in Malvern

Photo 12: Liz Lynne MEP with NFU President Peter Kendall at the Three Counties Show in Malvern