Fair Deal For Farmers: Why we need a rural powerhouse

Mr Roberts, president of the Farmers' Union of Wales, says just as there has been an emphasis in recent years on rebalancing the economy away from the service sector and back towards manufacturing industries, it is equally important to create an "agricultural powerhouse" in rural Britain.

Throwing his weight behind our campaign to back the region's farmers, Mr Roberts says it is crucial that people support their local farmers, emphasising that they play a crucial role in supporting the economy and preserving the British countryside.

• See our directory of businesses that support our region’s farmers at shropshirestar.com/farmers

• Keep up with all of the campaign news at shropshirestar.com/fair-deal-for-farmers

The campaign is also being backed by Richard Yates, chairman of the Shropshire branch of the National Farmers' Union.

Mr Roberts cites the case of John and Sarah Yeomans' farm in Adfa, near Newtown, which was featured at the launch of our campaign on Monday. We revealed then how the Yeomans' beef and lamb farm in the hilly Welsh borders supported nearly 2,900 jobs at 39 different companies, with everybody from the tyre fitter to the vet dependent on a thriving agricultural sector. Mr Roberts says that is a story which is replicated at countless farms right across the region.

Mr Roberts points out that while, quite rightly, much political energy has been expended on trying to protect the Welsh steel industry, there has been much less fuss about the troubles faced by dairy farming in the area, which employs similar numbers.

"There is a clear imbalance in political focus for supporting these two very important industries, an imbalance which also extends to all our agricultural sectors," he says.

Mr Roberts says in our rural communities farming is more than just an industry, but is a cornerstone of both the economy and the culture of rural Britain.

"This is not just about farming, it is about the wider recognition of how farming matters, where supply chains are involved, how money circulates in the local economy, where people survive, where profits are made, communities are sustained and our culture continues to thrive," he says.

Mr Yates, who with his father Henry has farmed at Middleton Scriven near Bridgnorth for decades, says the relationship between the farmer and the consumer is closer than it has been for many years.

Mr Yates says people are far more conscious about what they eat than they were a generation ago, with traceability and food miles the buzz words in today's food industry. He says the emphasis on fresh, local produce presents an exciting opportunity for farmers in the county, as people increasingly turn to products closer to home. The farming industry has, in many respects come full circle. In the first half of the 20th century, people had little choice but to eat fresh, local produce, due to the limitations of transportation and the lack of refrigeration.

The motorway network, increased availability of imported and processed food, and the ability to store it for longer, meant that in the postwar years it became increasingly hard to know where our food came from.

Join our campaign – and highlight how you place the produce of Shropshire and Mid Wales in the shop window.

• See our directory of businesses that support our region’s farmers at shropshirestar.com/farmers

• Keep up with all of the campaign news at shropshirestar.com/fair-deal-for-farmers

You might be a butcher, baker, deli or even a florist. You may run a restaurant, pub or cafe. Or you may sell your wares at fairs or farmers markets.

As long as you use produce made by farmers in our region, you can be included.

The Shropshire Star will create an online directory of businesses that support our farmers.

And we will send you a Fair Deal for Farmers window sticker that you can display to your customers.

It is easy to get involved:

Send an email to us at: newsroom@shropshirestar.co.uk

Write to: Fair Deal, Shropshire Star, Ketley, Telford TF1 5HU

We need to know your name, the name of your business and its address and how you support farmers – please also name farms you support and the produce you either sell or serve up.

But over the past decade there has been a definite shift back towards locally sourced produce which can be traced back to the farmer, as exemplified by the growing number of farmers' markets up and down the country.

"I think people are much more aware today about the benefits of healthy food, thanks to various cooking programmes which highlight the importance of knowing what you are eating and where it comes from," says Mr Yates, whose family has farmed at Middleton Scriven, near Bridgnorth, since 1971.

"I went to the Ludlow Food Festival and it was heaving, a lot of people were interested in how traceable the ingredients of their food were."

Mr Yates says the Red Tractor scheme, launched by the NFU in 2000, has had a major impact. The scheme guarantees that all food and drink carrying the Red Tractor logo meets specific standards of production, and can be traced back to the farm that produced its ingredients.

He says in an increasingly competitive market, this ability to trace the route food has taken from field to fork could give British farmers a crucial advantage.

"Everybody at the moment is talking about the importance of exporting to the China, and the Chinese seem to be very keen on knowing where there food comes from.But he says there is still a lot to be done, particularly when the food goes further down the line, away from the farms.

"Whenever I go out for a meal, every restaurant I go to, I ask where the food has come from," he says.

"The typical response is 'I will have to go and ask the chef'', and they will then come back having spoken to the chef and they will just say 'it's local'.

"As a farmer, that is very frustrating. I have to ensure that every animal on my farm can be traced back, and that must count for something."

Our Fair Deal for Farmers campaign, which has already been backed by television personality Kate Humble and Shropshire MP Owen Paterson, aims to support businesses which support our farmers. We are compiling an online directory of businesses, including shops, restaurants, pubs and hotels, which sell local produce, outlining what they buy and from where. They will also be given a window sticker which tells customers that they are doing their bit to support local farming, and are behind our campaign.These are tough times for many farmers, but the role they play in providing us with food is as important now as it has ever been.

In the words of Glyn Roberts: "In these times of political uncertainty, only a few things are constant: the grass will continue to grow and it will probably rain soon."