Agenda item

QUESTION BY MS D GROOM TO CLLR C CAMPBELL, EXECUTIVE BOARD MEMBER FOR COMMUNITIES AND RURAL AFFAIRS

“As agriculture in the UK is massively subsidised, I should like to understand why the County Council is spending money in its 'Moving Carmarthenshire Forward' plan to boost food production indiscriminately when we understand that one of the most effective actions that consumers can take is to eat less meat.”.

 

Minutes:

“As agriculture in the UK is massively subsidised, I should like to understand why the County Council is spending money in its 'Moving Carmarthenshire Forward' plan to boost food production indiscriminately when we understand that one of the most effective actions that consumers can take is to eat less meat.”

Response by Councillor Cefin Campbell, Executive Board Member for Communities and Rural Affairs:-

“The eating of meat is a personal choice and I don’t wish to get into an ethical argument with you about meat consumption. However, what the Moving Rural Carmarthenshire Forward report recognises is that the agriculture sector in Carmarthenshire provides the backbone of our rural communities, not just in economic terms but also in terms of its social, environmental and cultural contribution. We are talking about living communities.  We also realise that the way that agriculture is funded and has been heavily subsidised, as you so rightly say, is very likely to change as a result of us leaving the European Union, something that the County Council has little or no influence upon, and in turn this is likely to change the face of agriculture and in the future, if it is adversely affected it could have a seriously detrimental effect on the resilience and future sustainability of our rural communities. I don’t think that anyone in this Chamber would wish that to happen to the unique rural communities that we have here in Carmarthenshire and in other parts of Wales.

The Council has not committed to spend money to boost food production indiscriminately as you mentioned and I maybe would take issue with you on that as we have never implied that we would do that indiscriminately in the report, but rather we would like to support the local agricultural sector to diversify and seek opportunities in terms of local sustainable food production and seasonal consumption across the whole range of food types, be that meat, dairy or plant based products. We want to encourage locally produced and locally consumed food products and one of the things we are looking at, along with other public service partners in Carmarthenshire, is how we can adapt our procurement methods so that we can purchase more locally produced products thus reducing food miles and the waste in our supply chains.”

Ms Groom asked the following supplementary question:-

“I agree with everything you have said actually.  I want to support the farmers but it’s clear that the move towards veganism is accelerating which will eventually take a heavy toll on our livestock producers.  I wonder whether the Council is considering how to encourage and help these farmers to transition from livestock to ecologically sound food production by directing funding to support transition?”

Councillor Campbell responded as follows:-

“We have a very close relationship with the Farmers Unions in Carmarthenshire and I think they recognise very well the challenges that they face moving forward. They realise the subsidies they have had may not be at the same level.  They also recognise the hard work that they need to do as well to meet the challenges of climate change.  Farmers know that and they want to diversify but it doesn’t mean that they should disband all the practices that have been built up over many centuries and passed on from generation to generation. I would be really happy to discuss this with you at a future date. And I suppose in terms of the point you made regarding veganism, I still regard that as a personal choice and I think for those who wish to become vegans or are vegans, many of them do it for moral reasons but also for climate change reasons and I suppose what we’ve heard in the press recently is the reference to methane emissions.  The greenhouse gases that cause global warming, there are three main gases, methane is one of them, hydrogen dioxide is the other and carbon dioxide   Methane disappears from the environment after about 12 years so it’s not the most serious of gases but if farmers change their farming methods and practices then methane emissions can be reduced so that is a discussion, without getting too technical, I am happy to have with you some time again.”

 

 

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