Question Time panel debates farm incomes, Brexit and food security in Brecon

A televised Question Time debate in Brecon turned to farm incomes and food security, after an audience question asked how British farmers could make a decent living while consumers can still afford to eat. The panel took the question in several directions, with exchanges on Brexit, Welsh farming rules, food production, nature and tax.

One panellist said the priority was creating the right environment for farming to thrive. He criticised what he called instability around the Welsh Sustainable Farming Scheme, noting it had gone through several iterations, from 'Brexit our land' to later versions. He said farmers needed a scheme that lets them farm, cuts bureaucracy and gives them annual budgets. He also called for a joined-up approach on animal health and welfare between the UK and Welsh governments.

Another panellist framed the issue as two simultaneous crises: food security and nature. He said the UK is one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world, with Wales in a worse state than the rest of the UK, and that the country is highly dependent on imports. He said 65% of fruit and veg is imported, and argued for specific incentives to produce more fruit and veg and subsidies at the point of sale to make it cheaper for consumers.

A further panellist argued that farming has done well over the last 10 years, with commodity values up, and that farmers should be left to look after their stock and countryside. He said political interventions, whether from Europe or government, had caused problems such as corn mountains, milk mountains and quotas.

Brexit became a flashpoint. One panellist said the type of Brexit negotiated had been an 'absolute disaster' for farming. She pointed to extra red tape and costs because the UK is not part of the sanitary and phytosanitary scheme. She said this costs £149 per shipment on checks, that salmon farming faces huge extra costs and that cheese manufacturers have had export problems. She also said 16,000 businesses have stopped exporting to the EU, with many in agriculture.

Delyth, a panellist, said more than 90% of Wales' land area is devoted to agriculture. She said farmers needed certainty and pointed to a multi-year package of a billion pounds. She described the Sustainable Farming Scheme as a vehicle for helping farmers support the planet, tackle the climate and nature crises, and sustain small family farms that are the bedrock of many Welsh communities.

The debate also heard an audience or panel intervention about a farmer who was said to have been forced off his farm by Welsh Water over water pollution from sheep. The speaker said the fourth-generation farm had 5,000 sheep, supplied lamb to the nation and Europe, and was told to reduce its stock to 1,000. The speaker called that not viable or sensible and said another farmer had been driven away.

Mims closed the exchange by saying food security is national security. She said farmers should be left alone, that attacks on them should stop, and that the family farm tax and family business tax should be scrapped. She said Labour had two weeks to act. She also called for more abattoirs, support for sheep farmers, listening to farmers and cutting National Insurance for young people, which she said would particularly help young farmers in Wales.

The host said the programme had run out of time and thanked the panel and audience in Brecon.