Royal Watch News
Charles' farming 'romance'
Feb 7, 2006, 14:38 GMT
Britain's Prince Charles has called on UK farmers to 'restore the romance' in agriculture by producing high quality meat and selling it locally.
The Prince said people have lost the 'connection with the great stories' of the farmer, the animal and the land.
He was helping to launch Junction 38 - a project in Cumbria where farmers have set up their own meat processing plant. Critics say local markets can only ever account for a tiny part of output. Speaking to BBC Two's Newsnight, the Prince warned that pandering to international markets would 'just suck out every single interesting aspect' of farming. He said: 'Agriculture is not as simple as sweeping it all away and having vast industrialised processes with one or two huge farmers who don't have that relationship to the land.' The Prince of Wales' view received support from many in the farming community. Sean Rickard, a former economist for the National Farmers Union, said projects like Junction 38 'have to succeed'. He said: 'If British agriculture wants a profitable future, this is what they will have to do.' But critics such as Lord Haskins, chairman of Northern Foods, said 95 per cent of agriculture would always be carried out in a large-scale commercial way.Copyright 2006 BANG Media International
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