The Farmers' Union of Wales today described a European Parliament decision to demand mandatory country of origin labelling of food as a major step forward in the union's lengthy campaign to protect the high quality of Welsh produce.

"Farmers in Wales have good reason to want all producers to ensure labelling is accurate and unambiguous," said FUW president Gareth Vaughan.

"In the past few years imported meat has been the subject of a number of mislabelling incidents which could have tarnished the quality image of food produced in Wales and the union was compelled to highlight the mislabelling of Argentinian rump steak - displaying the British flag and British farm standards logo - at a major supermarket chain in Bangor.

"The store said the mislabelling was a mix-up and was quickly corrected after it was pointed out by the union. Another FUW member in Snowdonia revealed how meals served to children at a local school included food said to be '80% Welsh Beefburgers' but the labels on the boxes stated they were manufactured by a company in Hull."

During yesterday's debate in Strasbourg around two thirds of UK MEPs agreed to back a clear demand to send a strong political message in favour of mandatory country of origin labelling to the other EU institutions.

Their amendment urges "the country or place of provenance shall be given for the following: meat; poultry; dairy products; fresh fruit and vegetables; other single ingredients and meat and poultry and fish used as an ingredient in processed foods".

Their decision will now be passed onto EU governments in the Council of Ministers for approval. "We hope the Council of Ministers will now agree with the commonsense approach of MEPs to this matter and offer no more opposition to the measure," Mr Vaughan added.

The Farmers' Union of Wales today welcomed the outcome of a National Assembly inquiry which refused canoeists' requests for free open access to Welsh rivers.

Instead, the Assembly's sustainability committee called for voluntary access agreements by landowners, a licensing system for those using unpowered craft on inland waters and a fee for those making a profit out of water-related recreation.

FUW land use and parliamentary chairman Richard Vaughan, who gave evidence to the committee's inquiry, said the union was concerned at the impact any increased, unmanaged access to inland waterways would have on adjacent farmland as there had been several trespass incidences across farmland by users wishing to reach or leave an inland waterway.

"We believe the committee has made a sensible response to the canoeists' demands and we welcome its recommendations which support reasoned discussion on access issues," he said.

"The union is totally opposed to a statutory approach to access to inland waters as it believes there are major farm management issues associated with such a proposal, given the amount of inland water within Wales.

"The FUW strongly believes that if the Assembly is seeking to improve access to any part of the countryside and want to encourage landowners to participate in voluntary arrangements, it must seriously consider ways in which to reduce the liability burden on farmers.

"Feedback from our members suggests that working in partnership and increasing dialogue will prove far more constructive than the introduction of blunt policy instruments which will foster resentment and conflict between all parties.

"It is also important to ensure that all relevant parties are involved in discussions to ensure that any agreement reflects the commercial and environmental priorities identified for that particular waterway."

Mr Vaughan stressed that the FUW is not opposed to water-based activities. "In fact, we have members involved with diversified enterprises that encourage canoeing, kayaking etc, through voluntary agreements, provision of infrastructure and access points to and from the water.

"Many farmers are also actively involved in their local angling associations and much voluntary time, effort and resources are put in by individuals to maintain and enhance the environmental value of the areas they manage.

"Similarly, landowners may incur costs in maintaining waterways which abut their property. Therefore, it would seem only equitable that recreational users, who do not wish to be party to voluntary arrangements, should be required to pay a license fee to the Environment Agency, to help them maintain the resource they enjoy.

"This method would provide revenue to the Welsh economy and assure landowners that licensing comes with a code of practice, which would highlight the need to access or leave waterways on designated rights of way, and provide all users a stake holding in waterways which would act as justification to preserve and enjoy."

Meirionnydd farmer Richard Vaughan is a new face on the Farmers' Union of Wales' powerful central finance and organisation committee.

Mr Vaughan, aged 46, takes over as the committee's North Wales special member from S4C TV's Ffermio presenter Alun (Elidyr) Edwards who stepped down due to his broadcasting commitments but remains chairman of the union's agricultural education and training committee.

Mr Vaughan, of Pall Mall, Tywyn, was elected during the union's annual general meeting in Aberystwyth on Monday June 14.

He has already been chairman of the union's central land use and parliamentary committee since 2006.

He was FUW Merioneth's county chairman between 2007-2009 and has recently worked assiduously leading the union's representations on the Welsh Assembly Government's controversial Glastir land management scheme.

He is a member of the Meirionnydd Royal Welsh Agricultural Society's Advisory Committee and represents the county on the Membership Committee in Builth Wells. He also sits on the Council of the Royal Welsh Agricultural Society.

He is a former chairman of the Meirionnydd Grassland Society and also vice chairman of Tywyn Town Council as well as other associated committees.

Pall Mall Farm is situated on the A493 north of Tywyn. It is one of two holdings, totalling 550 acres, and is farmed by Mr Vaughan and his wife Dwynwen. Most of their land is at Pant y Panel and Prysglwyd at Rhydymain, near Dolgellau.

A flock of 750 Welsh Mountain Sheep is kept, together with 150 ewe lambs replacements. Around 200 ewes are crossed with Texel and Suffolk rams, and the remainder with Welsh Mountain. Approximately 60 store cattle are kept and fattened over the summer.

Mr Vaughan is well qualified to speak on the Glastir Scheme, since his farm was one of the first to join the Tir Cymen Scheme when Meirionnydd was chosen as a pilot area in the early 1990s. It benefited greatly from the scheme and the farm is now in its sixth year in the Tir Gofal Scheme.

As part of these schemes, capital works have been carried out, including stone walls, fencing, hedging, tree planting, wild life ponds and even an otter den.

Pall Mall Farm has been successfully diversified over the last 40 years. Outbuildings have been converted, two chalets built, and a caravan site established which, by today, has around 100 units.

Mr and Mrs Vaughan have also developed a successful business purchasing and renovating houses in Aberystwyth to be let out as flats and bed-sits. Mr Vaughan sees this as an important part of the business which brings in valuable extra income without taking him away too often from his farming activities.

Meanwhile, all the other six members of the finance and organisation committee - president Gareth Vaughan; deputy president Emyr Jones; vice presidents Glyn Roberts, Eifion Huws and Brian Walters; and South Wales special member Lorraine Howells - were re-elected.

A national charity with 150 years service of support for people working within the farming industry and a Powys farmer were presented with awards recognising their contribution to Welsh agriculture during today's Farmers' Union of Wales annual general meeting.

This year The Royal Agricultural Benevolent Institution (RABI) - who received the union's annual "External Award" - commemorates 150 years of unbroken support for the farming community and Bryan Jones - who plays an active role in the FUW at county and national level - was presented with the union's "Internal Award".

Since it was founded RABI has helped many thousands of Welsh farmers, farm workers and their families in times of need and last year, in Wales alone, it spent £282,103 on beneficiaries - almost 10 times more than the total fund-raising income of £29,368 from Welsh counties.

Nationally, in 2008 RABI paid grants totalling £1.6m to 1,503 retired and disabled beneficiaries including 184 working families who received a total of £287,758 either to relieve severe hardship or through the Gateway project.

RABI's formation can be traced back to a letter written to The Times in 1859 by Essex farmer John Mechi who appealed to all farmers to link themselves together as volunteer canvassers. He wrote: "Not profit but charity is the mainspring of your efforts and desire to help those who are helpless, comfort those who are comfortless and support the aged, shelter the homeless and befriend and instruct the innocent and unprotected orphans..."

Today RABI continues as custodian of that vision. Every year it provides around 1,000 Christmas hampers to beneficiaries and continues to support elderly couples, widows, widowers and people of any age who are disabled, along with families struggling to make ends meet.

Mr Jones has farmed at Coed y Parc, Caersws, since 1973 when he took over the tenanted dairy holding. He also farmed in partnership with his parents at Cefn Farm, Hyssington, and both farms are now run in partnership with his wife Susan and their son Andrew.

They run a 70-cow pedigree Friesian Holstein herd plus followers and a flock of 300 Texel and North Cheviot X ewes.

Mr Jones first became a delegate on the FUW's milk and dairy produce committee in 1988, serving as chairman, from 1990 to 1994, at a time of major change with the break up of the then Milk Marketing Board.

As a tenant farmer, he was FUW Montgomeryshire branch's delegate on the union's tenants committee. He was elected the committee's chairman in 1994 and led the union's opposition to the introduction of farm business tenancies.

Mr Jones was elected a vice president of the FUW in 1995 and served on the central finance and organisation committee until 1998. He has given evidence, on behalf of the FUW, to the House of Commons' rural affairs committee in relation to problems in the dairy sector and the BSE enquiry.

In 2003 he gave evidence at the European Parliament in Brussels on a debate relating to the dairy sector.

Mr Jones has represented and continues to represent the FUW on a number of government bodies, such as the Milk Quotas Advisory Group, Industry/Government Working Group on Animal Identification and Registration leading to the establishment of the British Cattle Movement Service, the Milk Quotas Experts Group, and the Bovine Industry Working Group.

He was awarded the FUW/HSBC award for outstanding service to the Welsh dairy industry in 2006.

Mr Jones is a past director of Farmore Farmers and AF Farmore and represents Montgomeryshire on the Genus Advisory Committee. He is a member of Powys Local Access Forum and past vice chairman of Montgomeryshire Local Access Forum.

Mr Jones recently took part in the WAG/HCC sheep EID trials.