How does it feel for the industry? MB: I think weve always recognised, from day one, how difficult Ireland is. And then, of course, just this wall of silence. Which is very similar to what they do in countries like Australia and America. UKICE: Did any of your members, who might have been inclined to support Leave before the referendum, have second thoughts? Because whatever we allow Australia to do, dont forget weve then got New Zealand, weve got Canada, and of course, overlaying all of that, weve got the Trans-Pacific deals. We ended up facing three no deals, essentially, in the end, all of which were avoided. Above all else, I want to see honesty to farmers about the road that they are on from our political leaders. HARDtalk. But that didnt stop us from getting stuck in. Her first full-length novel, The Ice House, was published in 1992. Its sort of backfiring at the moment, and we still, I think, really need to know what the future is going to look like, and where the improvements are going to be. We had a lot of members who were saying, Youre going to have to take a position. And of course, goods have proved, with Agri-food in capital letters, to be the problem child in all of this. From my point of view, I wanted to keep the market, the business, alive, bearing in mind that these are perishable products that we are dealing with. MB: Really concerned. Then weve got political issues, like seed potatoes- there is no reason why seed potatoes should be blocked out of the EU market. Then there was the permanent focus, bearing in mind that successive governments have driven people out of doing what are deemed not to be office-based jobs, I suppose. The Australian head negotiator heads up the Trans-Pacific negotiations as well. Were they particularly worried about that? Again, it was the engagement with Number 10 that got the global seasonal scheme of 30,000 over the line. My meeting with the Prime Minister in October last year, 2020, was absolutely pivotal in getting the Trade and Agriculture Commission over the line. What we have to recognise is none of these things can be done in isolation. I definitely felt that was a moment in time. MB: In the end, as Deputy President of the NFU, I did take a public position, which was that, on the information we had, we would be better off remaining in the EU. She said: "Back in 2009, my friend Minette Batters and I saw that positive messages about Red Tractor-assured British beef were not getting through to the consumer. But I wondered what conversations you were having about the potential problems of what we now call east/west trade, and north/south trade, within the island of Ireland, if Brexit happened. And I think George Eustice described this as seeing me have a sort of nuclear moment, where I nearly erupted through the ceiling. It has also been translated into several languages. During a gap year between school and Durham University, 1968, Minette volunteered in Israel with The Bridge in Britain, working on a kibbutz and in a delinquent boys home in Jerusalem. I can remember, it was either Justin Webb or John Humphreys, saying, This isnt the Agricultural Bill, this is the Environment Bill. Still, the same Chequers discussions are being played out. UKICE: If you look at the whole period together, farming is obviously one of those areas where the big decisions used to be taken in Brussels, but theyre now being taken in a mix of London, Cardiff, Edinburgh. And a support aid budget of 3bn, a lot of talk is made about that. But weve got to be able to do it in a way that has the right policies in place to deliver whats needed. But given the issues at hand went well beyond the economics argument, into issues such as immigration and sovereignty, it was also decided that the NFU would not campaign for Remain, nor would we advise our members how to vote. Analytical Services; Analytical Method Development and Validation Which, of course, it should never have been, because that was about food safety and what we were wanting to talk about was food values, and the laws of our land. 21 February 2023 Minette Batters: Food cannot be the poor relation to the environment Minette Batters, head of the National Farmers Union (NFU), doubles down on food security in the face of green farm subsidy reforms. Set in the 14th century at the time of the bubonic plague, The Last Hours took several years to research and write. Youve got Defra, effectively, leading on border controls and things like export health certificates. Minette was the first crime/thriller writer to win three major prizes with her first three books. And, as someone quite well known to you, were you relieved that it was someone who had a track record on farming? So, having been the preferred destination for European seasonal workers to come to, we now had this huge challenge that we were going to pull up the drawbridge. Baroness McIntosh of Pickering with NFU Vice President Find ratings and reviews for the newest movie and TV shows. WebMinette Batters NFU President Minette runs a tenanted family farm in Wiltshire. WebMinette runs a tenanted family farm in Wiltshire. So, when I went and had my second meeting with Theresa May, it was to discuss her Chequers proposal. MB: No, I think its an enormous challenge within government. But he was reshuffled when Boris Johnson came in. By India Bourke I remember sitting opposite him at a Sector Food Council meeting and George Eustice remembers this, I might add, as clearly as I do, because he was in the room, and Liam Fox saying, Brexit is going to be great, because we can bring in cheap raw ingredients and add value to them under the Union Jack. I think there was a sort of realisation then that, actually, they hadnt got this quite right, and they needed to be talking about farmers, about food production. MB: There was an element of, Goodness, what is this going to look like? MB: I think it was a phenomenal rebrand for the department, really. Minette Batters 0 Batters calls for Government assurances over impact of UK-Australia trade deal on UK farmers June 15, 2021 NFU president Minette Nov 13, 2021. farmbusiness.co.uk . [citation needed]. That Wageningen piece of research was enormously helpful in how we continued to have the conversations with our members, across our democratic structure, because the NFU is totally democratic in the way that it operates and having independent economic analysis helped underpin the evidence base. So, it continues just to be a live issue that will have to be overcome, at some stage. You were looking at, I think it was David Dimbleby and at the arrows and thinking, No, that cant be right. Bring everybody into the room, have a massive discussion, and then he would leave the room and you were never quite sure as to who had been listened to. You also hear talk of having higher standards here, so being above the EU. Minette Batters - President, National Farmers Union of England and Wales. We knew that we had to be able to inform our members of facts. The first country to implement animal welfare legislation was the UK. We had other members who were saying, You cannot take a position, or, If you do take a position, it must be vote Remain, or, It must be vote Leave. Well, we still dont actually know, publicly, what trade policy is. I just wondered whether that perception of the farming sector is right, or if it was much more evenly split than that? Her third historical novel, The Swift and the Harrier, was published in 2021. Weve got to make sure that we build what I would call bridges to more mechanisation, more automation. abril 26, 2023 0 Visualizaes jason elliott, newsom. You were planting crops and you were making business decisions, having no idea whether you had a market or not. But doing it well means really working collaboratively with everybody in the food and farming sector. buss type w 30 amp fuse replacement; Books. Minette met her husband Alec Walters while she was at Durham and they married in 1978. But Defra, government, really only focused on bail-out packages in a no deal scenario, that would allow farmers to effectively restructure. Joanna Partridge NFU president Minette Batters on her farm in south Wiltshire with her Simmental cross cattle and dog, Basil. How did you find dealing with the new team, compared to the May team? On 37 March 2008, BBC2 aired Murder Most Famous,[4] a five-part TV talent contest series, in which Walters tutors and judges six competing celebrity writers, with the winner having his or her crime fiction novel published by Pan Macmillan on World Book Day 2009. But there was also a level of thinking, Well, it could just end up being no-deal by default. You dont mention food production, you dont mention agriculture, all youre mentioning is the environment. This is what Michael kicked off, effectively, with David Rutley, in the very beginning. What I did feel, and what I do feel, is enormous weight of responsibility to get this right. And what I learnt quite early on, and has subsequently become a key element of NFU work, was that if you have a problem, work up the solution. WebMinette Batters is known for Midlands Today (1964), Kay Burley @Breakfast (2019) and Sky News Today (2001). We didnt want farmers to go out of business. Because one thing is for certain, you cant be all things to all men. If were going to have checks in the Irish Sea to avoid a border, where do you do the checks? And I think the likes of Daniel Kawczynski, too, supported it, on that very basis. During a gap year between school and Durham University, 1968, Walters volunteered in Israel with The Bridge in Britain, working on a kibbutz and in a delinquent boys' home in Jerusalem. Now, what did preparation look like? To our minds, this had been a democratic decision of the nation. UKICE: At the moment, we have this sort of asymmetric border, dont we? Covid, and the out-of-home sector being offline, is masking the issue at the moment, of what things will look like going forward. Well, that will be really, really damaging. The NFU launched a levelling-up report, because when we look at the whole levelling-up agenda, it cant just be about north versus south, weve got to look at opportunity across the whole country. MB: It was a worry in the context of how it was set out. Were such a big organisation, representing 50,000 farmers across England and Wales. The Mail on Sunday agreed to help promote the NFUs standards petition. I speak to my opposite number in France, Christiane Lambert, who is President of the FNSEA, the French version of the NFU, getting her to lobby the French government on why we need border control posts, Calais being pretty pivotal in all of this. fivem gun crafting location; pros and cons of lifesource water system; usta friend at court 2022 handbook Things could go massively UKICE: When you saw the Northern Ireland Protocol that the Prime Minister had agreed to, did you anticipate that it was going to cause what appeared to be quite a lot of problems for east-west trade in agrifood products? Weve worked on emergency measures and everything else, but thankfully they were never needed. That was quite a moment of recognition for me. UKICE: We saw the very hostile reaction from EU political leaders to Chequers, but I wondered whether you got any sense from your sister bodies in France, Denmark, Netherlands, places that were concerned about UK lowering standards and the implications for that on agri-food farming, that they thought Chequers was quite a clever wheeze? So, that was really compelling. UKICE: Weve heard about asparagus rotting in the fields, strawberries unpicked, daffodils unpicked. Minette Batters on Henry Plumb President of the NFU Minette Batters champions the life of Henry Plumb, Lord Plumb, who was the only British president of the Michael Gove was perhaps not in his most ideal Cabinet seat, but I think he did manage to rebrand himself with what had been deemed to be a graveyard department, to the benefit of the department. Its one that I take incredibly seriously and one that does keep me awake for many a night, yes. I have very good engagement with the Department for International Trade at all levels, and with Defra at all levels. minette batters family. But then he left. There isnt a silver bullet, but ignoring the situation and saying it isnt important is not a way forwards. It means that the future absolutely has to be got right, and delivery has to work. She said: "Back in 2009, my friend Minette Batters and I saw that positive messages about Red Tractor-assured British beef were not getting through to the It was ideology based on three principles: A bonfire of regulation, the easiest trade deal in history, and more money for UK priorities, because we wouldnt be paying it into the EU. The coalition showed that this was about consumers, this was about everybody believing in it. Officials suddenly became very energised, because they had someone who was really digging in on every area of detail. When you look at this country, 70% of it is rural. The TCA landed on 24 December, with details to be filled in in some areas, while managing the pandemic. minette batters familymilwaukee battery lights flashing back and forth minette batters family. We use cookies to enhance your user experience. Scotland is talking about maintaining the same levels of direct support, so an area-based payment linked to sustainable farming. They have two sons, Roland and Philip. To what extent was the Government talking to you, or engaging with you, on its thinking on their common rulebook, which would obviously mean staying aligned to a lot of the agrifood regulations? UKICE: Are officials more accessible, if you cant get in to talk to Lord Frost? At this moment in time, its lacking in detail as to what the future scheme looks like. They still are. I think Defra has very strong views on all of this, I know George Eustice does. 48-52% was always going to be challenging, divisive, but to have another referendum, we didnt believe would have made any difference at all. So a no deal meant that we would be dealing with the EU the same way as we would be dealing with the rest of the world in the absence of any trade deals. I think a lot of people were quite relieved to see George staying in the Department, with a level of continuity and knowledge of farming. We focused all our lobbying on, I guess, the outcomes that we wanted to see achieved, not our means of getting there by some of the existing avenues; the Single Market, customs union, EFTA. 1995 The CWA Gold Dagger Award (shortlist): 1995 The Best Translated Crime Fiction of the Year in Japan. We are really asking Defra to keep looking at the impact assessments. I thought, Gosh, were leaving the CAP and what is this? Home; Service. He had said, on behalf of the NFU, that it was in farmings best interests to join the Common Market. I think, again, we need to be looking at producing more here. Apr 13 2023. What did the NFU want? But it isnt an opportunity if we lose access to the EU market. I have to say, at that time, that was so needed, because we had to work through a process. UKICE: In March 2019, Daniel Kawczynski said hed vote for the Withdrawal Agreement, given the negative prospects of no deal exit to the farming industry. Walters was the first crime/thriller writer to win three major prizes with her first three books. Walters joined IPC Magazines as a sub-editor in 1972 and became an editor of Woman's Weekly Library the following year. But I was well aware that wed burnt quite a lot of bridges with people, who felt that the NFU had behaved badly. UK in a Changing Europe (UKICE): Michael Gove was a relatively long-serving Defra Secretary of State, by Defra standards. WebMinette met her husband Alec Walters while she was at Durham and they married in 1978. Agricultural Acts dont come along very often 1947, 1920 its over a 70-year gap. And how is the state going to be able to pay for them to effectively just plant trees? At the end of the day, this will land on the Prime Ministers desk as to which way he wants to go. The union's president Minette Batters will make the call at their conference later today amid growing concerns about the implications of Brexit for farming - whether a deal is struck or not. In September 2007, Walters released her fourteenth book, The Chameleon's Shadow, in the UK. So that, with as free and frictionless trade as could be achieved, was something that we all believed in then and we all believe in now. There is a lot to lose if we dont get it right, and there is a lot to gain if we do it well. Im not so sure. Do you think that the Brexit that has played out so far is at least meeting their expectations, in terms of what new opportunities it would bring? MB: I did. But do bear in mind that a precedent had already been set. What is needed?. I know where that negotiating team are, so, either one side or the other side has to capitulate between now and June. UKICE: And were there any sensible preparations that you could do, or that you were talking about Defra doing, in that eventuality? I dont think DIT and Defra are aligned in their thinking. Weve always maintained that, in the UK, we dont want to lower standards, but there has always been a concern as to what imports and the future of international trade will look like. Co founder, Ladies in Beef and GBBW. You know, vote for this, because it will be cheaper. She was first elected to the post in 2018 for two years, and was re-elected in March 2020. Did it make a difference having Andrea Leadsom there? We need a really transparent approach to how agriculture fits in all of this. But certainly France and other countries put forward the same thing. UKICE: How did you think the Department was coping? The end of this will be judged in the years to come. It just isnt going to work like that. Batterss 17-year-old twins, who are studying for their A-levels, havent decided if they will take over running the farm, but it remains a family business. Chequers, I think brought a level of understanding. Everybody was putting down these legal markers, effectively. It is no good going to government, just saying, I want. When I see the out-of-home sector has been offline, with everybody buying products out of retail, prices in the red meat are pretty good because retail has become very loyal to British sourcing, because the British consumer has demanded it. NFU President Minette Batters tells us why it's so important to What we must avoid is a two-tier food system. Still, what keeps me awake at night is this desire to raise standards here. So, influencing is going to be important. Or did you wait to see what on earth the Government did, to fill in this void? Helped by her husband Edwin and son George, Jilly manages 600 acres on the River Exe floodplain, raising native breeds like South Devons and Red Polls. But that F4 group is still trying to work through these thorny areas. I think it is always challenging when you work with a majority government. Checking everything against the principles was pretty key, because if you are leading an organisation, which I wasnt then, Meurig Raymond was, it is really critical to have that solid evidence based foundation from which to operate, and from which to build our policy and lobbying position from. That was a manifesto commitment, dont forget, in the 2019 election not to undermine our farmers in future FTAs. MB: I think there were some. Has this led to a fundamental change in the relationship between the NFU and the governments of the different parts of the UK? What are my members going to be doing in future? Its only when commodity prices are impacted, and the future support mechanism is changed- if that isnt right, that is when things will start to erupt, and that is what weve got to try and avoid. Michael was very bought into that. UKICE: Did you have any qualms about becoming NFU President in the middle of this process? Her novels are often set against real backgrounds and real events to draw her readers into the reality of what she is writing about. WebOn 19 April our Environmental Change & #FoodSecurity inquiry heard from @HenryDimbleby; @Minette_Batters, @NFUtweets; Peter Dawson, @dairyuk; @suepritch, @FFC_Commission; and Chris Brown, @asda. I think we all knew what problems were coming, but I think the challenge was, what was going to be done about them? It has also been translated into several languages. And I was going out, putting on the radio, listening to Radio 4 and saying the same thing, going back in, looking at the television, thinking, This cant be right. How are you going to do that? We cant have one standard for one and not for another. The National Farmers' Union (NFU) is demanding a written guarantee from the government that Brexit won't undermine British farming standards. [13], Walters' first five books were adapted for television by the BBC and her eighth book, Acid Row, is currently[when?] Get personalized recommendations, and learn where to watch across hundreds of This has been a political decision by the EU and, to a certain extent, their line is, Well, we didnt want you to leave, were entitled to make it difficult. They, of course, looked at the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) impact assessment in 2018, so were very much wanting them to look at that again. UKICE: Whether or not it was a majority of farmers, some farmers at least were keen to leave the EU. As the May Government was starting to develop its vision of its Brexit, we had ministers, not least Liam Fox, talking about doing trade deals with the US, and the big summer 2017 bust-up over chlorinated chicken. Dont get me wrong, I think the NFU is really optimistic about the future, we really believe we can be leaders in climate-friendly food production. But of course, politically, it was enormously challenging. Because of the size of our population, because of the size of the sector, food and farming employs one in eight people. MB: I think there was an element of thinking, They can never do this, because it will be so bad. I suppose you can say that, in the end, the voice was heard, even if it took three botched attempts to avoid it. So, there is a lot of water, I would say, to go under the bridge before that question can be answered. So, from our point of view, it was important to have bilaterals with our opposite numbers and allow them to lobby their governments on what was needed. Webshreveport obituaries minette batters family. And everybody was adamant that we could not have a border on the island of Ireland. UKICE: Weve got Defra about to implement the new farm payment scheme. Did you target any of the backbenchers who were holding out? The tenancy eventually came to her in 1998 (after a spell as a jockey and then a caterer), and she is very much in charge. The government was clear it would not countenance food price inflation, so the Temporary Tariff Regime was conceived. I remember reading the Defra press release the night before that interview, and it was a heart-stopping moment for me. Northern Ireland are looking like they will carry on with the status quo. Her third novel, The Scolds Bridle, then won the CWA Gold Dagger, giving her a unique treble. So, we kicked off this campaign. UKICE: But its also consulting, isnt it, on gene editing and other issues like that, which the Government sees as a big new possibility to appear more open to innovation than the EU. Whitehall has driven so much of EU rules and regulations for agriculture and the environment, so when we bring it back home, weve got to be able to make sure that it works across those four countries. That in itself was controversial with some of our members, but the expertise wasnt in the UK, economic analysis of trade deals was something the European Commission was responsible for. WebMinette met her husband Alec Walters while she was at Durham and they married in 1978. Well, we were just getting a flat no Get back in your box and be quiet, because weve got a majority government and we can do what we want. What did you think of that process, working with the Government on getting people ready for a whole bunch of really complicated border formalities that they havent had to bother with, to nearly as great an extent, over the last 45 years? Minette Caroline Mary Walters DL[1] (born 26 September 1949) is an English crime writer. Lovely to listen while running through Oxfordshire farms. I think it poses big questions for international trade. It was a formidable coalition. WebMinette met her husband Alec Walters while she was at Durham and they married in 1978. But for us, all the way through, it was about fairness, and making sure that trade was fair. Suddenly, the environment was rising up the agenda and everybody wanted a slice of it, and he was running the show. It was never going to be, for them, the same as remaining part of the single market. UKICE: Rather intriguingly, George Eustice, given his background, put down one of the indicative votes proposing UK accession to EFTA. UKICE: Do you think the Department for International Trade and Defra now have a unified view, or is this battle still being played out within government, as opposed to outside government? I think farmers are feeling reasonably optimistic at the moment. With no series character tying her to particular people, places or times, she moves freely around settings a sink estate (Acid Row), a Dorset village (Fox Evil), a suburb of London (The Shape of Snakes) although every setting is 'claustrophobic' to encourage the characters 'to turn on each other'. I guess we always felt, in those early days, that a good Brexit effectively made agriculture the poster child of post-Brexit Britain.
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