I think it is always challenging when you work with a majority government. There is a lot of detail that needs to be progressed, and rapidly, for farmers to feel confident to get onto the new platform for next year. I think Defra has very strong views on all of this, I know George Eustice does. At this moment in time, its lacking in detail as to what the future scheme looks like. In 2017, Minette realised a long-held ambition to publish an historical novel. Northern Ireland are looking like they will carry on with the status quo. We brought a massive coalition together of all farming organisations, nearly every NGO that is out there animal welfare experts, consumer groups, Jamie Oliver, Raymond Blanc, Prue Leith. 30 Apr 2023 11:52:44 It means that the future absolutely has to be got right, and delivery has to work. It took two and a half years to write and was rejected by numerous publishing houses until Maria Rejt, Macmillan Publishers, bought it for 1250. We have commissioned some independent research to look at the viability of the new schemes, of how much will be lost, effectively, from BPS, and how much can be made up through either the agri-environment schemes or through the sustainable farming incentive. Analytical Services; Analytical Method Development and Validation Minette Batters could not have chosen a more difficult time to become the first female president of the National Farmers Union (NFU). I guess we needed to be able to get our point of view across, recognising that it didnt necessarily fit that well with the mantra of Brexit is great, because its about cheaper food, cheaper clothes, which had been the mantra. MB: No, I think its an enormous challenge within government. And I remember her saying to me, I had no idea how complicated Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) rules were. History will judge what we did harshly if we get it wrong, so we cannot afford to miss a beat. And of course, goods have proved, with Agri-food in capital letters, to be the problem child in all of this. Did you think, I need this like a hole in the head, I could just go back to my farm and live a quiet life, rather than get stuck into this political morass? Although weve left the EU, weve left transition, we havent achieved trade at scale with the rest of the world, in any shape or form, nor have the aid schemes changed or been reduced yet. When I see the out-of-home sector has been offline, with everybody buying products out of retail, prices in the red meat are pretty good because retail has become very loyal to British sourcing, because the British consumer has demanded it. MB: I think they were in a difficult position. There are a lot of things that need to be done. We just focused on, What we need is free and frictionless trade, which I think, for some, got quite annoying. So, we had a very good discussion at NFU Council in April 2016. Its sort of backfiring at the moment, and we still, I think, really need to know what the future is going to look like, and where the improvements are going to be. UKICE: But they still prioritised doing deals with the US, though maybe receded slightly. But it was always going to need a bespoke model. But we had to get this right. MB: I think there were some. We had other members who were saying, You cannot take a position, or, If you do take a position, it must be vote Remain, or, It must be vote Leave. Her first full-length novel, The Ice House, was published in 1992. Minette describes herself as an exploratory writer who never uses a plot scheme, begins with simple premises, has no idea whodunit until halfway through a story, but who remains excited about each novel because she, along with her reader, wants to know what happens next. That is a breaking of the manifesto commitment. We went to Wageningen University, a world leading Dutch University with experience in running agricultural trade models. As her father was a serving army officer, the first 10 years of Walters's life were spent moving between army bases in the north and south of England. Well, we were just getting a flat no Get back in your box and be quiet, because weve got a majority government and we can do what we want. +(91)-9821210096 | paula deen meatloaf with brown gravy. I went out to the Republic of Ireland to the massive ploughing match that they have, talked with the Irish Farmers Association, as we have done for our entire time, within COPA-COGECA, and also visited the Northern Ireland border and our colleagues in UFU. Minette Batters is the first woman to become President of the National Farmers' Union, representing 47,000 members. Things could go massively Top $76,000-a-year New Jersey boarding school admits 'more should have been done' to stop bullying of boy, 17, who took his own life after being falsely accused of rape by cruel peers Lovely to listen while running through Oxfordshire farms. If we dont do that, we will see things rotting in the fields, simply because we havent got the capability to pick them. Id be lying if I said I didnt think that. Yet were hearing about a race to achieve a trade deal with Australia before the G7 Summit in Cornwall in June. So, that is all good. Go to them, saying, This is the solution to that problem. It has got friction, where none existed before. Agriculture is up for this global climate challenge. Covid, and the out-of-home sector being offline, is masking the issue at the moment, of what things will look like going forward. And we established some principles of what we were looking for, going forward, whether it was Leave or Remain. They have two sons, Roland and Philip. So, there were, along this journey, some slightly heart-stopping moments, as to the road that we were on. To get to wholesale ways of trading, whereby you have one truck full of one thing, is going to be easier to resolve. But given the issues at hand went well beyond the economics argument, into issues such as immigration and sovereignty, it was also decided that the NFU would not campaign for Remain, nor would we advise our members how to vote. We knew that we could have a global scheme, that it didnt all have to be about Europe, but with a reliance in the seasonal workforce, of 80,000 seasonal workers, to pick and pack and plant our fruit, veg and flowers. Defra had always been a slightly second, third, ranked department, partly because so much of its policy was run from Europe rather than domestically. We never even got close to that. She supplemented her salary by writing romantic novelettes, short stories, and serials in her spare time. Were still developing the thinking, still influencing, and with the academics and the science community working with us, we are making huge progress. To our minds, this had been a democratic decision of the nation. You know, vote for this, because it will be cheaper. All sorts of different people, in different places, dealing with different things. MB: No, it wasnt. That, above all else, United Kingdom farmers remained the number one supplier of choice to their own marketplace. And of course, a lot of European workers were working within the food and farming sector, so that very quickly became, like trade, one of the things that we had taken for granted, that we were now very aware we couldnt take for granted anymore. He had said, on behalf of the NFU, that it was in farmings best interests to join the Common Market. Weve now got the two licences in place for that. But doing it well means really working collaboratively with everybody in the food and farming sector. Do you think the Government has yet worked out beyond some of the things youve been worried about like the ban on live animal exports the opportunities of post-Brexit Britain, on regulating differently, more smartly, being more pro-innovation? You know, weve got a government that now is saying its banning live animal exports, and it wants to have higher standards across the board of food production. That Wageningen piece of research was enormously helpful in how we continued to have the conversations with our members, across our democratic structure, because the NFU is totally democratic in the way that it operates and having independent economic analysis helped underpin the evidence base. What we wanted for this country should be, and still should be and must be, about what we want from other countries too. And now, within the Agricultural Act of 2020, the Secretary of State for Defra has access to a multi-annual plan. I think most definitely, in the run-up to those no deals, many farmers were thinking, This really does look terrifying. Weve worked on emergency measures and everything else, but thankfully they were never needed. We need to work collaboratively to incentivise a UK workforce. Walters was the first crime/thriller writer to win three major prizes with her first three books. WebBrowse 72 minette batters photos and images available, or start a new search to explore more photos and images. MB: I think it was a phenomenal rebrand for the department, really. Weve always maintained that, in the UK, we dont want to lower standards, but there has always been a concern as to what imports and the future of international trade will look like. We must make sure that even the poorest in our society have access to high quality British food, which they currently do. That was the challenge. Agricultural Acts dont come along very often 1947, 1920 its over a 70-year gap. We can, as a source of emissions and a sink, go carbon-neutral, we can get to net zero. And I think George Eustice described this as seeing me have a sort of nuclear moment, where I nearly erupted through the ceiling. They, of course, looked at the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) impact assessment in 2018, so were very much wanting them to look at that again. From my point of view, I wanted to keep the market, the business, alive, bearing in mind that these are perishable products that we are dealing with. With Theresa May, it was about trying to say, Were here, dont forget agriculture, because its going to be the complex area. 1995 The CWA Gold Dagger Award (shortlist): 1995 The Best Translated Crime Fiction of the Year in Japan. What did you think of that process, working with the Government on getting people ready for a whole bunch of really complicated border formalities that they havent had to bother with, to nearly as great an extent, over the last 45 years? Initially she was an amateur jockey and assistant trainer to David Elsworth and James Toller. Which means there were nearly a billion less eggs produced in 2022 compared to 2019. RT @RainNewtonSmith: Great podcast with the brilliant @Minette_Batters of @NFUtweets passionate about the role of farmers in nature restoration, energy and food security. Michael didnt know that we were going to say that, nobody in Defra knew that we were going to say it. At the end of the day, you can have the best policy in the world, but if you cant deliver it, its a disaster for Treasury, its a disaster for farmers. Do you think it signalled a significant change of direction? Checking everything against the principles was pretty key, because if you are leading an organisation, which I wasnt then, Meurig Raymond was, it is really critical to have that solid evidence based foundation from which to operate, and from which to build our policy and lobbying position from. I remember going to bed on referendum night and texting our Director of Strategy, Martin Howarth, who has been with the NFU a long time, and was in our London Office. But its a classic case of, youve got to pitch people. UKICE: So, the negotiations are going on. Minette Batters 0 Batters calls for Government assurances over impact of UK-Australia trade deal on UK farmers June 15, 2021 NFU president Minette Nov 13, 2021. farmbusiness.co.uk . It was a formidable coalition. There are different moving parts to all of these things that, I think, make it a challenge to resolve. MB: I think, bearing in mind how vital our market is to them, they could see that it allowed a way through. So, for us to have stayed on the fence without a position would have, I think, looked quite extraordinary. I think a lot of people were quite relieved to see George staying in the Department, with a level of continuity and knowledge of farming. Photograph: Adrian WebMinette runs a tenanted family farm in Wiltshire. Some of which, like David Frost, its been impossible to meet. UKICE: Are officials more accessible, if you cant get in to talk to Lord Frost? UK in a Changing Europe (UKICE): You have a Conservative leadership battle that ends up with Theresa May becoming Prime Minister. We do have to be all things to all men, whether its arable, livestock, dairy, horticulture plus all those cross-cutting issues of environment, land use, tenancy issues. And the decision was taken, by NFU Council, the sovereign body of the NFU, that on the information available it was in British agricultures best economic interest to remain. After a pause of 10 years in which she wrote two novellas, Walters has decided to write historical novels. Matthew Parris asks Minette about the challenges of balancing her work with the day-to-day demands of farming and what impact Lord Plumb made on British life. This arguably makes her the most powerful farmer in the UK; she Then weve got political issues, like seed potatoes- there is no reason why seed potatoes should be blocked out of the EU market. You have to go there with what I used to describe to Michael a magpie moment, the glittery jewel that makes government think, Oh yes, that looks exciting. It has also been translated into several languages. That was the frustration. I still look back on it as, fundamentally, my job is about speaking truth to power and getting what is needed for, not only the members, but consumers. When that government came in in December 2019, there was, I felt, quite a bit of rebuilding to do with backbench MPs because of Brexit. Five generations of her family have run the farm but, like the new NFU president, she is the first woman to take the reins. I think there was a sort of realisation then that, actually, they hadnt got this quite right, and they needed to be talking about farmers, about food production. We also knew that campaigning on either side, for a membership organisation, would be really counter-productive. There are a lot of high standards in America. Walters joined IPC Magazines as a sub-editor in Has this led to a fundamental change in the relationship between the NFU and the governments of the different parts of the UK? Its been very much about get a degree, go to university, work in services. That in itself was controversial with some of our members, but the expertise wasnt in the UK, economic analysis of trade deals was something the European Commission was responsible for. But then he left. On gene editing, yes, on plant breeding, its a massive opportunity. The fundamentals that we had taken for granted free and frictionless access to the largest trading block in the world, and free movement of people, which gave us access to a competent and reliable workforce were front and centre. Trade is such dry policy, that a lot of people, particularly in the media, were not taking the time to understand it. Her themes include isolation, family dysfunction, rejection, marginalisation, justice and revenge. Dont forget, Michael Gove did not hold back in this arena, he is well documented and publicised. I think we were quite at arms length, I would say, from influencing the European thinking. UKICE: Chequers obviously didnt go anywhere and sunk at the Salzburg Summit, but Theresa May does land a Withdrawal Agreement and Parliament is not passing it.
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