First Public Meeting for FARM - 15th Sept 2003

Originally from: Farmtalking
                        
FARM Public Meeting: Monday, 15th September 2003

Town Hall, Bedford Square, Tavistock, Devon. Starts: 7.30pm
Licensed Bar open from: 6.30pm

FARM – The Independent Voice of Farmers will be holding its first public meeting in the South West on Monday, 15th September. The meeting will be an opportunity for farmers and the public to find out more about the organisation and its work, including its new campaign, ‘Save Our Farms!’ Founder members, Zac Goldsmith and Devon farmer, John Sherrell will be speaking along with other members of FARM.

The meeting takes place following the publication of official statistics showing that:

1. 55,000 people left the UK’s farming and fishing industries over 2001–2. That’s over 1,000 a week!

2. In the South West alone, 10,000 people have left the farming and fishing industries over the last 3 years. The majority of these job losses will have been from agriculture.

Zac Goldsmith said,

‘‘In 2001, Mrs Beckett said she’d, ‘be astonished and dismayed if we were to see the disappearance of the traditional family farm.’ Yet that’s exactly what’s been happening wholesale across the country under her watch. Many people are aware of the sad decline of the UK’s fishing fleet, but fewer realise that there’s an even more devastating exodus off the land. FARM aims to get the public alongside the farming community and force Mrs Beckett to put actions behind her fine words and halt this erosion of our food security.’

John Sherrell added,

‘The Devon countryside is famous for its variety of small fields, roadside banks of wildflowers, and picturesque villages. This rich landscape and habitat is a product of a diverse network of small and family farms. Yet these and the people who farm them are going out of business at an alarming rate. New uses for farms and farmland can add to the variety of our countryside and rural communities, but as an addition to, not a substitute for a sustainable farming sector.‘

For further information contact:
Robin Maynard: 020 7349 5832/07932 040452