Somerset rep resigns: NFU 'doesn't care about its membership'

[Zardoz]

Remember this (bottom article) from many moons ago?

All looks mightily relevant with the NFU press conference the other week with the half-hearted applause for the Badger cull despite farmers being bussed in from all over the country to make it look like the NFU had reall mass support for the cull.

Just like so many areas of our public policy life the NFU is being run more like a cult than a trade union. Farmers for Justice has sprung up of course in an attempt to make amends for the corruptionn but simply can never forge the links with the finance crooks that give preferential insurance to NFU loyalists. 

Makes me wonder whether no Alternative movement attempting a united front will have any hope of success unless it incorporates all the real, farmers for justice style, campaigns and groups. 

With that understanding that the NFU never can be any part of the solution and land reform part of the agenda we might see some real pioneering change in Britain.

Like many Brits before me, Gerrard Winstanley and Dennis Wheatley to name but two, I have a sense that, as the first nation to industrialise and just retain a half decent education system, we really could lead the world ... yes lead it ... into a socially just post-industrial era. 

Tony

for good measure here is a follow up article on the Somerset NFU rep who had enough.

Mead spills the milk over NFU battles
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
http://www.thisissomerset.co.uk/Mead-spills-milk-NFU-battles/story-11355132-detail/story.html#axzz2MzqzNJMY

Somerset dairy farmer Derek Mead is resigning from the NFU in protest at what he says is its total failure to support dairy farmers.
​
Derek Mead has resigned from the NFU because, he says, the organisation has failed to support dairy farmers over the prices supermarkets pay for milk 

In a surprise announcement Mr Mead, a lifelong union member and Somerset's delegate on its ruling council, says the NFU has turned a blind eye to thousands of dairy farmers leaving the industry over low milk prices.

Mr Mead is one of the most powerful and outspoken figures in West Country farming, though his outspokenness has often put him at odds with union officials, particularly during his two bids for election to one of the NFU's top posts.

He owns a large organic farm near Weston-super-Mare and is a member of a dynasty whose empire includes ownership of Yeo Valley.

Mr Mead is also heavily involved in the construction sector. His companies were responsible for the total remodelling of the centre of Highbridge, near Bridgwater.

That itself was part of the scheme to relocate the town's livestock market to Sedgemoor Auction Centre, his £10 million development next to the M5 in North Petherton, which is widely credited with reinvigorating the entire livestock trade in the South West.

Mr Mead has had less success in trying to reshape the NFU into an effective campaigning force.

He helped set up Farmers For Action to combat low milk prices in the 1990s but has frequently clashed with senior office-holders over NFU policy.

"We are no further forward than we were 10 years ago," he said. "We have seen thousands of dairy farmers leave the industry and dozens are still leaving, because they can't get a decent price for their milk.

"But it's as if the NFU is deliberately turning a blind eye to this fact. From my perspective it seems more concerned about keeping in with processors and retailers than standing up for its members."

Mr Mead said he was equally disgusted with the union's attitude to government.

"We have had a succession of the most appalling Defra ministers and all we can do is invite them to the annual conference, listen politely to them and give them lunch," he said.

Mr Mead said the NFU had failed to grasp the significance of the bovine TB crisis and had not discussed a new business plan for reshaping the union.

"As to the way it has dealt with the milk issue its response has been nothing short of pathetic," he said.

Bridgwater's Conservative MP Ian Liddell-Grainger said: "It is a very principled move and one which should send a very powerful message indeed to the NFU."

NFU spokesman Ian Johnson said: "Derek's trenchant views have been a feature of our debates for some years and he has always pursued his agenda with a true passion.

"We shall miss his contributions and we wish him well on whichever future road he intends to take."

http://www.thisissomerset.co.uk/Mead-spills-milk-NFU-battles/story-11355132-detail/story.html#axzz2MzqzNJMY


--- In Diggers350 at yahoogroups.com, Tony Gosling <tony at ...> wrote:
>
> 
> >
> >The NFU 'doesn't care about its membership'
> >
> >
> >
> >Wednesday, April 14, 2010, 09:00
> >
> >http://www.thisisbristol.co.uk/news/NFU-doesn-t-care-membership/article-2013116-detail/article.html
> >
> >After seven years as the Somerset delegate for 
> >the National Farmers' Union, I'm afraid I have 
> >come to the conclusion that the NFU is there 
> >merely to promote itself and really doesn't care 
> >about the interests of its membership.
> >
> > From all I have seen and heard, I am driven to 
> > the conclusion that it is far more concerned 
> > about maintaining the supermarkets' margins and 
> > playing lapdog to Defra – the well-worn route 
> > by which retiring office-holders collect their 
> > non-executive directorships and knighthoods.
> >
> >One of the main reasons I stood for presidency 
> >of the union in February was because it was my 
> >belief that the voting system is totally unfair.
> >
> >And how can I substantiate that claim? Simple: 
> >the ballot papers used to elect candidates to 
> >the top three posts are all numbered, so 
> >officials can plainly see who voted for whom.
> >
> >I was so disillusioned with the way the NFU is 
> >run I was actually going to resign last year.
> >
> >But I was encouraged to stay because so many of 
> >my council colleagues told me I was one of the 
> >few people who was prepared to say what I really 
> >thought, and had a chance of making a 
> >difference. But in the end they didn't have the guts to vote for me.
> >
> >Predictably, under such circumstances, I only received three votes.
> >
> >One of them was mine, and the other two were 
> >those of Somerset NFU chairman Mark Pope and 
> >Charles Bourns, chairman of the poultry board. 
> >Charles Bourns is a man who stands up for his beliefs.
> >
> >He and the board deserve to be thanked for their 
> >work in ensuring the Little Red Tractor actually 
> >means something and has the Union Jack wrapped 
> >around it – despite opposition from others who 
> >wanted to see it applied equally to any imported food that met UK standards.
> >
> >I would like to thank him publicly for voting 
> >for me, because it caused him a lot of 
> >aggravation, sparking a campaign to remove him 
> >from the chairmanship of the poultry board – though one he managed to survive.
> >
> >My old colleagues in Farmers For Action, David 
> >Handley and Paul Reynolds have repeatedly told 
> >me that I would never change the NFU and I'm 
> >sorry to say that I now have to agree with them.
> >
> >After all, what has it achieved over the last 15 
> >years? We have seen the steady decline of 
> >British agriculture, we have lost status as an 
> >agricultural nation, lost the Royal Show which 
> >used to showcase the best of British farming, 
> >and lost the Smithfield in 
> ><http://www.thisisbristol.co.uk/news/NFU-doesn-t-care-membership/article-2013116-detail//topics/place/london>London 
> >– and despite what may be claimed the 
> >replacement shows are no more than very pale 
> >imitations of a once-great event. We are only 50 
> >per cent self sufficient in food and the proportion continues to fall.
> >
> >A quarter of all farmers are below the poverty 
> >line and supermarket profits are still rising.
> >
> >We have 62 million customers on our doorstep and 
> >only enough food for three days.
> >
> >We are, as someone put it, three days away from 
> >anarchy. It is an absolute disgrace.
> >
> >This all rests at the door of the NFU, its 
> >failures in leadership and its emerging role as 
> >the government's propaganda machine.
> >
> >The only positive sign is that Peter Kendall has 
> >removed the bovine TB brief from Meurig Raymond 
> >and he is now dealing with it directly himself.
> >
> >I have already had a couple of discussions with 
> >Mr Kendall, but the situation is getting worse.
> >
> >While politicians have been allowed to dither we 
> >have seen TB spread to sheep, wild boar and 
> >deer. Yet to all intents and purposes Mr Kendall 
> >still appears to be dithering while the South 
> >West's livestock sector goes to the dogs.
> >
> >One man I have a lot of time for is badger expert Brian Hill.
> >
> >Unfortunately, we have gone down with TB 
> >ourselves but we have had him on the farm and he 
> >has shown us the logical, sensible way to tackle the problem.
> >
> >Meanwhile, the government continues to waste 
> >millions (on top of the compensation bills) 
> >trialling an untried vaccine using untested 
> >techniques and telling farmers where they can 
> >send stock from closed-down farms, instead of 
> >tackling the disease at its root and removing the infected badgers humanely.
> >
> >For all the hate mail, the vicious, snarling 
> >attacks by the badger-huggers and (sadly) the 
> >perception among some sections of the public is 
> >that all we farmers and countrymen really want 
> >are healthy badgers and healthy cattle.
> >
> >If there were any justice in this situation the 
> >pro-badger lobbyists should be taken to court for cruelty to animals.
> >
> >TB is a terrible disease and a terrible way for 
> >a badger to die. If you had a domestic animal or 
> >a farm animal suffering in a similar way, it 
> >would have to be put down humanely – because it 
> >is a criminal offence to leave it.
> >
> >The problem is that as a result of legal 
> >protection there are now too many badgers in the 
> >countryside – and certainly more than can be 
> >comfortably accommodated given their territorial nature.
> >
> >But we do not want to see the mass slaughter of 
> >badgers, as is about to happen in Pembrokeshire.
> >
> >There are farmers there who are very frightened 
> >because some areas have never had TB and have healthy badger populations.
> >
> >So why take out these and increase the risk of 
> >infected ones eventually moving in to take their place?
> >
> >I believe there is common ground between farmers 
> >and badger groups and I honestly believe that 
> >the next move is for us to talk to them and see if we can identify it.
> >
> >We may have to, as an alternative to swapping 
> >insults, because Hilary Benn's refusal to take 
> >an unpopular decision and to listen only to the 
> >'science' that he wants to hear has ensured that 
> >this has become a long-term problem which will require a long-term solution.
> 
> +44 (0)7786 952037
> http://tonygosling.blip.tv/
> http://www.thisweek.org.uk/
> http://www.911forum.org.uk/
> "Capitalism is institutionalised bribery."
> _________________
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> 
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