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FUW President Glyn Roberts launches the Union's General Election Manifesto at St Fagans farm.[/caption]
The Farmers’ Union of Wales has officially launched its 2017 General Election manifesto, outlining what it considers the priorities for the next UK Government should be in terms of agriculture.
Speaking at the event, which was held at St Fagans National Museum of History in Cardiff, FUW President Glyn Roberts said: “This is an unusual election - perhaps a single issue election - and unlike any that we will have faced before. Brexit will dominate and we need to ensure that whoever forms the next Government understands the significant challenges and opportunities that Welsh family farms face. And that they also recognise that Wales - and Welsh farming - is not England and English farming.
“Today we are meeting in a museum, one that preserves and shows off the best and most intriguing elements of our social and cultural heritage. I think that this museum and the FUW have so much in common. We both know where we have come from, we both know that we represent the people and communities of Wales and we both know that we have a great story to tell.
“But St Fagans is of course a museum celebrating and recording the past, whereas our farming families represent not only a living history, but the future. And we certainly do not want to see Wales become a Museum. We must ensure that we continue to grow and deliver successful, profitable businesses in strong, happy, multilingual communities. Farm businesses that offer hope for our younger generation and help to keep our rural communities alive. For us the past is a foundation for building our future.”
The FUW firmly believes that the next UK Government must take the opportunity to shape domestic policies fit for a UK outside the EU and that those policies must respect the current balances of power between devolved nations, while also taking into account the concerns regarding disproportionate EU rules, regulations and bureaucracy which led to so many voting to leave the EU. “Since 1978 the FUW has been formally recognised by Governments as exclusively representing the views of farmers in Wales. We have no external influences from outside Wales, are the independent voice of Wales’ family farms. Therefore, the FUW is committed to lobbying all those in Westminster to ensure that Welsh agriculture and Wales’ family farms receive the attention and respect that they warrant, for the period of the next Parliament and beyond – for the sake of all our futures,” added Mr Roberts.