Procurement and renewable energy were at the top of the agenda when farmers from Glamorgan came together recently to question election candidates ahead of the Welsh Assembly elections.
Attending the meeting were Huw Irranca-Davies (Labour), Glenda Jones (UKIP candidate for Ogmore by-election), Andrew RT Davies (Conservatives), Denis Campbell (Liberal Democrats) and Tim Thomas (Plaid Cymru).
The event was held at St Mary’s Hotel, Bridgend and was chaired by FUW Glamorgan County Chairman Richard Walker.
There was a strong call for the next Welsh Government to ensure that more Welsh produce is sourced for hospitals and schools.
FUW Glamorgan County Executive Officer Rachel Saunders said: “Our food produce is grown and reared to the highest welfare standards across Europe. It should be a priority that home grown food is served at our dinner tables before imported food products fill our supermarket shelves.
“Welsh and UK produce should be available in our schools, hospitals, local authorities, leisure centres and nursing homes throughout the year. And it should be the first choice for supermarkets, restaurants and everyone else who has a role to play in the food chain.
“What we need, now more than ever, is a full commitment to local procurement. Our farmers have suffered enough from low farmgate prices over the years and they deserve to be fully supported by our home governments.”
The call for local procurement is underpinned by the FUW election manifesto and reminds all government departments and public bodies that they have a duty to support government priorities in terms of boosting Wales’ farming and food industry and sourcing local produce is definitely one of them.
Renewable energy as an option of diversification for farmers was also hotly debated on the night.
Following the meeting Richard Walker, Glamorgan County Chairman for the FUW, said : “For hundreds of years Wales’ mining, arable and woollen industries relied on renewable energy in the form of water and wind power, and by the end of the industrial revolution in the mid-19th Century no hamlet, however small, was complete without some form of mill.
“The revolution in renewable energy, brought about by recognition of the need to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels, has resulted in the development of new commercially viable sources of renewable energy, such as solar panels, as well as improvements in the efficiency of wind and water power.”
Despite Wales’ being perfectly suited for some forms of renewable energy generation, the percentage of electricity generated in Wales from renewable stands at just 10 percent – 5 percent lower than the UK average, and the lowest of all the UK devolved regions.
Whilst the Union remains neutral in terms of the divisive issue of large-scale wind farms, as laid out in the FUW election manifesto, we fully support the development of appropriate on-farm renewable energy sources, and believe Wales has only scratched the surface in terms of the contribution Welsh farms can make to green energy production.
“The decision in 2015 by the UK Government’s Department for Energy and Climate Change, which has responsibility for major national energy projects, to suddenly and drastically reduce support for renewables not only compromises our ability to help mitigate climate change, but has also led directly to farmers and others losing significant sums already invested in unfinished projects,” added Mr Walker.
In light of this the Union further called on the next Welsh Government to seek alternative and innovative ways in which funding can be provided in order to develop on-farm energy production and identify those barriers to on-farm energy production which fall within the remit of Welsh Government.
The Union further calls on the next Welsh Government to reduce bureaucratic burdens which prevent or add to the financial and time burdens which prevent developments for on-farm energy production.
Other questions put to the candidates focused on how RDP money is spent in Wales, what business rate relief schemes each party would propose to introduce and members stressed the fact that more support was needed for young farmers in Wales.