A Farmers' Union of Wales delegation travelled by train to Brussels to discuss agriculture's key role in mitigating climate change as Sir Paul McCartney flew in from London to demand meat?free Mondays, the union's leader claimed today.
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, McCartney admitted his flights from London to Brussels to make his case - and on to Berlin for a concert later in the week - had contributed to global warming.
President Gareth Vaughan told the FUW's grand council he was accompanied by his deputy Emyr Jones and senior policy officers when they met EC officials and Welsh MEPs to express concern over Defra's proposals for the industry after the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is replaced in 2013.
"And while we were in the EU parliament, arguing in favour of a common sense approach to land use and climate change, both in terms of the CAP and the Copenhagen summit, Sir Paul McCartney, the former Beatle, was in the same building, doing exactly the opposite.“The FUW travelled there and back by train! The word hypocrisy springs to mind, and I am confident that the carbon footprint of our farm fades into insignificance alongside the hundreds of transatlantic journeys undertaken by Sir Paul over the years.
"While McCartney’s campaign might incense us here in Wales, the anger must be far worse in Kintyre, Scotland, where he made his home in an area where, like Wales, crop production is in many areas unviable, and livestock farming an integral part of the economy and environment."