David Chadwick has called for greater fairness for farmers during a House of Commons debate.
Yesterday (Tuesday), the Brecon, Radnor and Cwm Tawe MP said in the Commons that the previous week, he had attended the Royal Welsh Show in his constituency.
He said he had spoken to many farmers, and top of their list of concerns was the power imbalance between producers and retailers.
Video from Parliamentlive.tv
Yesterday (Tuesday), the Brecon, Radnor and Cwm Tawe MP said in the Commons that the previous week, he had attended the Royal Welsh Show in his constituency.
He said he had spoken to many farmers, and top of their list of concerns was the power imbalance between producers and retailers.
Video from Parliamentlive.tv
Category
đ
NewsTranscript
00:00David Chadwick. Thank you. Thank you for giving way. Last week, I was privileged to attend
00:07the Royal Welsh Show in my constituency, Bracken, Radnor and Comtowey, one of the biggest constituencies
00:12in England and Wales. I spoke to many farmers and top of their list of concerns was the
00:17power imbalance between producers and retailers. Will he agree with the Lib Dem manifesto,
00:26which called for a strengthening of the Groceries Code adjudicator to ensure fairness in the
00:32supply chain, thereby protecting producers and guaranteeing food security?
00:37I don't make a habit of saying kind things about Liberals of any description, but I am
00:43going to say something quite kind to John Drennan because he's right to draw attention
00:47to that code. I was instrumental when I was a minister in the Department for Business
00:54at the time of arguing the case for the Groceries Code adjudicator. I met the first adjudicator
01:01and brought the second, the current incumbent, to my constituency to meet a group of farmers
01:06and growers in the last Parliament. So he's right about the strength of that and that just proves
01:12something that not everyone here will know. Even Liberal Democrats sometimes get it right.
01:18So in summary, Madam Deputy Speaker, I believe that now is the time for food security. Now is
01:29the time, building on the last government's beginning, and it was a belated beginning,
01:34to make food security a central tenet of the new government's priorities. I know the
01:41hon. Gentleman has enjoyed good relations with farmers and growers during his period as a shadow
01:46minister. That's been reported to me by my constituents and others, and he will have heard
01:51this argument made by them, not only by those of us who represent them in this place. It is really
02:00of vital importance in the national interest from the common good that we don't any longer allow
02:09our valuable agricultural land to be used for all kinds of other purposes, and by so doing,
02:16to compromise this country's food security, making us more dependent on landfills,
02:23more vulnerable, increasing emissions, increasing food miles, damaging local economies.
02:31That's not the way forward. Let's make food security matter.