Subsidies to end in 10 years – Whitty

20 August 2001



Subsidies to end in 10 years – Whitty

By FWi staff

SUBSIDIES for food production will disappear within 10 years, junior agriculture minister Lord Whitty has warned.

The junior Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs minister said farmers must adapt to new circumstances if they are to prosper.

Future support will be directed towards environmental and animal welfare concerns, he said.

Lord Whitty was speaking at the Mid-Somerset show near Shepton Mallet six months after the first case of foot-and-mouth was confirmed.

He said the current crisis has brought to a head an economic crisis which has existed in the industry for years, reports the Financial Times.

The Daily Telegraph claims that the governments refusal to hold a full public inquiry into the virus shows it believes that farmers are expendable.

It adds: “Farmers have been treated in a way that, applied to any other minority, would have the Left in a rage.”

The newspaper suggests that many farmers would gladly embrace a landscape management role provided they were given a respite from bureaucracy.

No new cases of foot-and-mouth were reported on Sunday (19 August). The UK total stands at 1960.

• Financial Times, 20 August, 2001, page 4
  
• The Daily Telegraph, 20 August, 2001 page 4, 17