Letter: Down on the farm
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Sir: Sean Rickard usefully focuses the arguments on reform of the EU Common Agricultural Policy on to harsh realities of global pressures and technological change. Many in East Anglia, for example, believe those changes will reshape landscapes as significantly as the shift from wool to grain in previous centuries.
UK producers and consumers should view these processes as opportunities rather than threats, but only if greater competitiveness is matched by bolder thinking about its benefits to the whole community rather than the profitability of the few. Rural workers and small businesses are also customers in local economies; the social and environmental consequences of change cannot be divorced from industrial considerations. That is why a genuinely integrated rural development approach is needed both in the Brussels negotiations and the UK government's rural White Paper this year, with a key component being diversion of "bad" wasteful subsidies into "good" environmental, healthy and nutritional encouragement.
UK producers are keen for that, understandably as long as sustainable incomes are likely. They now need arguments to be won abroad and at home in favour of quality rather than quantity of produce.
CLIVE NEEDLE MEP
(Norfolk, Lab)
Brussels
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments