AND THEN THERE WERE NONE...

With an election coming, particularly in a rural constituency, everybody (well everyone chasing votes) will appear to be the farmers friend. Our farming communities, despite this are feeling increasingly isolated and marginalised, the contempt with which the farmers have been treated by the New Labour Government (and previous Conservative Governments) in Westminster and latterly in Cardiff Bay (at least until the arrival of Plaid's Elin Jones, the Plaid driven One Wales Government Minister for Rural Affairs), used to mirror the neglect of the important agricultural sector, which still makes a significant contribution to our rural economy.

Any economic failure across the farming sector could (and did) have a massive knock on effect for dependent small businesses and suppliers across the whole rural economy, in the small towns and across the Welsh countryside itself; which is as the living landscape is a result of generations of ongoing hard work by our farming community.

In the past both Labour and Conservative Governments in Westminster (and Cardiff Bay) treated the agricultural sector with indifference. It is vitally important that this attitude at all levels of Government become a thing of the past; much more effort has to be made to market first class Welsh produce within the UK, in Europe and beyond.

Let us not forget, that in the 1980's it was a Tory Secretary of State who literally sat by and quietly did nothing when the Welsh Dairy farmers got hammered into the ground by cuts in the milk quota. Never again must any Welsh Minister fail to stand up and be counted and to fail to argue their corner on behalf of Welsh farmers. Now with Elin Jones (AM), the Plaid One Wales Government Minister for Rural Affairs we have someone who hit the ground running, who is not afraid to meet with and stand up for our farmers and their interests - this makes an immensely refreshing change from what has gone before.

Our farmers, despite mutterings to the contrary, are not merely looking for an annual brown envelope from Brussels but for a real opportunity to make a contribution (and make a living) within the agricultural sector - to do this they need a fair deal. We in Wales need to take more practical steps to give Welsh farmers a fighting chance of making a real living; securing 80% of publicly procured food locally by 2015 is a realistic and practical aim. This is something that could provide the first practical step towards helping Welsh farmers and other producers make the most of the new opportunities that will arise from higher public purchasing of local products.