Public back fuel protests

27 October 2000



‘Public back fuel protests’

By John Burns, south-west correspondent

FARMERS should not hold back from direct action such as protests, pickets and blockades for fear of upsetting public opinion, says Oxfordshire landowner Sir Julian Rose.

“Those activities are not going down at all badly with the public, particularly where supermarkets are the targets.

“The public are not stupid and they are cynical about government,” he told a conference at Silsoe, Bedfordshire, organised by Family Farmers Association and Farmers World Network.

Sir Julian also said he believed the best response to the current “absolutely ridiculous” situation in farming was to go back to being more resourceful, moving to alternative locally produced fuels, buying fresh local food and building using timber grown locally.

“Anger is better than fear, so get out there,” he said.

The theme of the conference was the World Trade Organisation and Family farms.

Sir Julian said he strongly doubted whether national governments had any impact on the WTO, even though it was officially they who negotiated and agreed the rules. T

he reality, he believes, were that large multinational companies had the real control, and national governments just tinkered with the frills.

International agricultural consultant John Wibberley emphasised that problem stemming from WTO should be tackled on as many fronts as possible.

While direct action was affective in some circumstances, it was also necessary to build bridges at local, national and international level to argue the case for changing WTO rules and keeping agriculture out of them.