The Agri Brigade
THE government has appointed ex-National Farmers Union (NFU) president Baroness (Minette) Batters to lead a “farm profitability review”. Although she was an effective campaigner for national food self-sufficiency during her NFU tenure, her record of resisting environmental initiatives suggests she’ll simply propose a watering-down of green regulations to improve profits.
On the face of it, environment secretary Steve Reed’s motive for appointing Batters is simple: the government is shocked at how dependent on government subsidies many UK farms have turned out to be.