I am very pleased to stand with the NFU in support of Back British Farming Day. It is one of the most lamentable aspects of this Labour government that they have betrayed the votes of those farmers who trusted them to protect their interests as the cultivators of our country. There has been a salvo of bills which have undermined our rural communities, ranging from the Family Farm Tax to the increase in energy taxes. This is no way to treat those who feed our country.
The rapidly evolving international situation makes the need for self-sufficiency ever more imperative. The present scenario is so far from this target that it is unsustainable. It is a matter of national embarrassment that 40% of our food is being imported from abroad. The inability of British farmers to keep their pricing competitive is a damning indictment of the state of the nation as well as a missed opportunity of making the most of our beautiful countryside, which, in places like Lincolnshire, has some of the most fertile, high-grade soil for growing produce.
