Farming leaders in Wales have united to speak with one clear voice on the industry’s ambition to deliver climate goals alongside the production of climate-friendly food.

Representatives from NFU Cymru, Farmers’ Union of Wales, Hybu Cig Cymru, AHDB and Wales YFC met for a meeting in which all five organisations agreed to work together to ensure Welsh food and farming can make a positive contribution to combatting climate change while safeguarding global food security.

The statement reads: 

Climate change is the greatest environmental challenge facing the world.  Through climate-friendly food production, the trees, hedges, grassland and soils that store carbon on Welsh farms together with on-farm energy generation, agriculture in Wales plays a key role in tackling climate change and is uniquely placed to be the solution. 

The Great Orme - a limestone mountain that rises 207 meters above sea level and is recognised as a Country park, Special area of conservation, a site of special scientific interest and part of the heritage coast. With views right across the Irish Sea and Anglesey in the short distance, it is no wonder that it’s rugged landscape attracts over 600,000 visitors a year.

But the Great Orme is more than just a tourist attraction. It is home to National Trust tenant Shepherd Dan Jones and 650 sheep. Dan has been the custodian of Parc Farm for the past 5 years and looks after not just the 145 acres included with the farm, but helps to manage a total of 900 acres, which have grazing rights for 416 ewes plus followers. 

Dan was born on a small family farm on Anglesey, and farming was always his passion. “My parents wanted me to do something different but I really wanted to farm. I went to Llysfasi college and then to Aberystwyth University to study agriculture. I always wanted to be my own boss and loved working with animals, so this was a really natural progression.” 

The National Trust bought Parc farm in 2015, and it was an important purchase as there were plans to convert the 150 acres farm into a golf course and with that the sheep would have had to go. The sheep are essential residents on the Great Orme, ensuring grazing rights are maintained and the landscape and biodiversity flourish.  

The Farmers’ Union of Wales has raised concerns about the procurement policies for school meals at primary schools on Anglesey with the local council. Union officials were concerned that the menu offered to children did not incorporate enough local and Welsh produce. 

FUW Anglesey County Executive Alaw Jones said: “We were encouraged by the meeting we had with the County Council and welcome the fact that they hope to work with local farmers to explore opportunities to supply meat and dairy produce for school meals on the island.” 

The council, which has recently signed a multi million pound contract to supply 9,500 school meals every day with catering giant Chartwells said that though they were limited in their influence over food suppliers, they would be happy to help the FUW raise awareness of high quality Welsh food producers within the catering company.

The Farmers’ Union of Wales is urging decision makers and Governments to ensure that mental health services remain high on the agenda, ahead of World Mental Health Day (Sunday, 10 October). 

The 2021 World Mental Health Day campaign ‘Mental Health in an Unequal World’, run by the World Federation for Mental Health (WFMH), aims to focus on the issues that perpetuate mental health inequality locally and globally. 

FUW President Glyn Roberts said: “I would say we are lucky in Wales and in our rural communities that we have the support of many mental health charities such as the DPJ Foundation, that our farmers and rural communities can call on for help. However, many people with a mental illness still do not receive the treatment that they are entitled to and deserve and together with their families and carers continue to experience stigma and discrimination.”

Four miles south of Machynlleth, nestled in the Dyfi valley and on the edges of the Cambrian mountains is Cefn Coch Farm, home to Dr Joseph Hope. The farm lies at about 200 to 250 meters above sea level and the land rises to the south and you can walk to the summit of Pumlumon without seeing a road or a house. 

The farm has 40 acres of species-rich pasture and woodland, and Joe is currently buying another 50 acres at Ynyslas. A new entrant, he keeps a small growing herd of Highland cattle, currently just 12 head in total. 4 saddleback x wild boar pigs are also busy clearing bracken and brambles in order to rehabilitate it for grazing.

Joe moved to Cefn Coch just over 6 years ago, leaving behind a life in Edinburgh, and a career at the Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh where he worked as a lichenologist. He initially let out the fields to a neighbour for grazing sheep and cattle and it was only 3 years ago that he bought his first cattle – 3 cows and calves. It was a big shift but got him hooked into pursuing a farming life.

“I guess I just wanted to get my hands dirty! Working at the Botanic Gardens was a real privilege but very cerebral. I wanted to do rather than just observe. I inherited money from the sale of my grandmother’s farm in Australia and didn’t just want to pile it into stocks and shares. I have a long interest in conservation and the countryside and came here to look after what seemed to me to be a very special patch of land. In time I decided that the best way to do that was by continuing to farm sensitively,” explained Joe. 

The Farmers’ Union of Wales (FUW) had positive talks with Minister for Climate Change, Julie James MS, with tree planting and the purchase of Welsh land for the purpose of carbon offsetting by businesses from outside of Wales taking centre stage.

The FUW has received reports from members on almost a weekly basis of whole farms or parcels of land being bought up by individuals and businesses from outside of Wales for the purpose of tree planting in order to invest in the growing carbon market or offset their own emissions rather than seeking to reduce their carbon footprint in the first instance.

“Our longstanding concerns regarding this issue were discussed in a recent meeting of the Union’s Council. Members felt strongly that the Welsh Government and Senedd should take urgent action to tackle this issue through some form of control mechanism,” said FUW President Glyn Roberts.