FARMING AND FUEL PRICES

The slow but steady increase in fuel costs will have an impact on food prices, it will hit both consumers and producers, with increased prices, falling profit margins and higher fuel bills - something that will hit both production and transportation costs. None of this is good news for either our farmers or us their customers.

Any economic failure across the farming sector will have a significant impact on dependent small businesses and suppliers across the whole rural economy, in the small towns and across the Welsh countryside itself. Most people agree that much more effort has to be made to market first class Welsh produce within Wales, within the UK and in Europe and beyond.

With an election coming, despite Gordon's daily dithering, you can bet on one sure thing, if not on the date of Polling day, and that the fact that, particularly in a rural constituency, everyone out chasing votes will appear like magic and claim to be the farmer’s friend. Our farming communities, despite this forthcoming wave of warmth continue to feel pretty isolated and marginalized, at least the contempt with which the farmers used to be treated by the once New Labour Government in Westminster and until relatively recently in Cardiff Bay (at least until the arrival of Plaid and Elin Jones, the Plaid driven One Wales Government Agriculture Minister) is now a thing of the past, at least in Cardiff.

We, in Wales, cannot afford to neglect of the important agricultural sector, which still makes a significant contribution to our rural economy. And speaking of the farmers old traditional friends, it's worth remembering that not that long ago in the 1980's it was a Tory Secretary of State who literally sat by and quietly did nothing when many of our 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, our farmers need a fair deal and a level playing field where they can make a real contribution. We need to take 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.