I think most definitely, in the run-up to those no deals, many farmers were thinking, This really does look terrifying. The mixed farming business includes a 100-cow continental cross suckler herd, as well as sheep and arable. Do not just go to government with X, Y and Z as a problem. Walters describes herself as an exploratory writer who never uses a plot scheme, begins with simple premises, has no idea 'whodunit' until halfway through a story, but who remains excited about each novel because she, along with her reader, wants to know what happens next. minette batters As part of the British project Quick Reads, to encourage literacy amongst adults with reading difficulties, she wrote a 20,000-word novella called Chickenfeed. All of these issues need a pragmatic approach from both sides. Vegan Celebrities Hurt Farmers' Mental Health, Complains Union Her third novel, The Scolds Bridle, then won the CWA Gold Dagger, giving her a unique treble. Minette Batters net worth Feb, 2023 - People Ai fivem gun crafting location; pros and cons of lifesource water system; usta friend at court 2022 handbook Because of the size of our population, because of the size of the sector, food and farming employs one in eight people. And the decision was taken, by NFU Council, the sovereign body of the NFU, that on the information available it was in British agricultures best economic interest to remain. 21 February 2023 Minette Batters: Food cannot be the poor relation to the environment Minette Batters, head of the National Farmers Union (NFU), doubles down on food security in the face of green farm subsidy reforms. minette batters California probably has higher standards than many parts of Europe. [7], In addition to full-length novels, Walters has written feature articles for magazines and the broadsheets, some short stories including "English Autumn, American Fall", and two novellas, The Tinder Box (1999), and Chickenfeed (2006). HARDtalk. Now, what did preparation look like? Our focus was always based on what agriculture needed. We just focused on, What we need is free and frictionless trade, which I think, for some, got quite annoying. I cant speak for the Ulster Farmers Union. So, there was that seasonal focus. It doesnt mean to say that it wont come back, but its going to take a lot of working together. We decided that in order to be compliant with the Electoral Commission rules, which of course had limited spending for unregistered bodies to 10,000, that we would need to take a position to comply with those rules. That worked, because everybody opened the doors and said, Really? What was not to like? After a pause of 10 years in which she wrote two novellas, Walters has decided to write historical novels. That, above all else, United Kingdom farmers remained the number one supplier of choice to their own marketplace. With Theresa May, it was about trying to say, Were here, dont forget agriculture, because its going to be the complex area. It runs, I think, central government and its departments for under a month. Weve now got the two licences in place for that. That was pretty daunting, I think, for a lot of farmers. UKICE: And were there any sensible preparations that you could do, or that you were talking about Defra doing, in that eventuality? Or did you, at that stage, think, This is so catastrophic, its just not going to happen? MB: I think innovation and research and development, effectively, are at the heart of everything, and certainly at the heart of getting to net zero. So, we had a very good discussion at NFU Council in April 2016. Co founder, Ladies in Beef and GBBW. That was the challenge. I think Im right in saying that we were one of the first trade bodies, across any sector, to commission economic analysis and absolutely the first in the agri-food space. UKICE: In March 2019, Daniel Kawczynski said hed vote for the Withdrawal Agreement, given the negative prospects of no deal exit to the farming industry. At the end of the day, you can have the best policy in the world, but if you cant deliver it, its a disaster for Treasury, its a disaster for farmers. Minette Batters - President, National Farmers Union of England and Wales. So, when I went and had my second meeting with Theresa May, it was to discuss her Chequers proposal. So, very quickly, this debate became about chlorinated chicken. Its a massively significant employer. Minette joined IPC Magazines as a sub-editor in 1972 and became an editor of Womans Weekly Library the following year. Are you worried by that? Some of which, like David Frost, its been impossible to meet. We also knew that campaigning on either side, for a membership organisation, would be really counter-productive. But our strawberries, our raspberries, our asparagus, our blueberries, are reliant on the dexterity of the human hand. This doesnt talk about farming, this doesnt talk about food. WebMinette met her husband Alec Walters while she was at Durham and they married in 1978. MB: I think, genuinely, probably nobody wanted it to play out how its played out, which has been long and protracted and divisive. I havent been able to get a meeting with Lord Frost yet. Minette Batters, who is the president of the National Farmers Union (NFU) of England and Wales and has been called the most powerful farmer in the UK, was Checking everything against the principles was pretty key, because if you are leading an organisation, which I wasnt then, Meurig Raymond was, it is really critical to have that solid evidence based foundation from which to operate, and from which to build our policy and lobbying position from. MINETTE BATTERS I remember going to bed on referendum night and texting our Director of Strategy, Martin Howarth, who has been with the NFU a long time, and was in our London Office. Weve obviously got a lot of trucks coming over and a lot of trucks going back empty. It has also been translated into several languages. Scoops about National Farmers Union . MB: What wed been talking about, accepting that we were no longer going to be a part of the Single Market, was how free and frictionless trade was needed on both sides. She was first elected to the post in 2018 for two years, and was re-elected in March 2020. All sorts of different people, in different places, dealing with different things. Still, the same Chequers discussions are being played out. So, the need for the NFU to get this right, to not drop a ball, to be focused on what is needed, to be the lobbyist extraordinaire ultimately, the weight of that falling on my shoulders has felt like a massive responsibility. When you look at this country, 70% of it is rural. He was there as Minister of State for Farming beforehand, under Michael, so we knew George very, very well. Minette was the first crime/thriller writer to win three major prizes with her first three books. We are really asking Defra to keep looking at the impact assessments. She won well over 30 races in her own right which included racing at So, once youd gone by those, you were into a no deal scenario by default. What are my members going to be doing in future? MB: No, we immediately got our thinking together. I have very good engagement with the Department for International Trade at all levels, and with Defra at all levels. Its one that I take incredibly seriously and one that does keep me awake for many a night, yes. I think, on an official level on both sides, they could see the enormous challenge, but the decision that that had to be resolved was purely political. UKICE: Did you get a sense that government actually appreciated the lengths of those lead times in farming? National Farmers Union elects first female president in 110-year But for us, all the way through, it was about fairness, and making sure that trade was fair. Find ratings and reviews for the newest movie and TV shows. Or did you wait to see what on earth the Government did, to fill in this void? [13], Walters' first five books were adapted for television by the BBC and her eighth book, Acid Row, is currently[when?] MB: I still think that is undecided, effectively. They still are. What we feel is that the dialogue must bring a pragmatic solution at some stage. MB: No, I think its an enormous challenge within government. But what I did see very quickly with Michael was someone who was very prepared to dive down into every area of technical detail and grasp it. So, that was really compelling. I remember sitting opposite him at a Sector Food Council meeting and George Eustice remembers this, I might add, as clearly as I do, because he was in the room, and Liam Fox saying, Brexit is going to be great, because we can bring in cheap raw ingredients and add value to them under the Union Jack. It has also been translated into several languages. Set in the 17th century, it explores the division and devastation of the English Civil War. Environmental Audit Committee on Twitter: "On 19 April our UKICE: Theresa May was absolutely clear that Brexit meant ending free movement, but farming and food processing had been very dependent on Eastern European migration for a long time. Thats what I remember most, nobody saying anything. We brought a massive coalition together of all farming organisations, nearly every NGO that is out there animal welfare experts, consumer groups, Jamie Oliver, Raymond Blanc, Prue Leith. How were you involved in no deal preparations? The Department for International Trade, of course, is focused on getting trade deals done. MB: In the end, as Deputy President of the NFU, I did take a public position, which was that, on the information we had, we would be better off remaining in the EU. Weve worked on emergency measures and everything else, but thankfully they were never needed. [6], In 2019 Walters was appointed a Deputy Lieutenant of Dorset. And everybody was adamant that we could not have a border on the island of Ireland. In competition with works by other best-selling authors, such as Ruth Rendell, Maeve Binchy and Joanna Trollope, Chickenfeed has won two awards as the best novella in the Quick Reads genre. The government was clear it would not countenance food price inflation, so the Temporary Tariff Regime was conceived. Andrea Leadsom, a leading light of the Leave campaign, moves over to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), to replace Liz Truss, and the establishment of the Department for International Trade (DIT), to show that new trade deals were going to be a big thing for the new government. UKICE: Had you anticipated the Leave vote, from where you live and from all the meetings youd been having during the referendum campaign? Well, that will be really, really damaging. Walters's themes include isolation, family dysfunction, rejection, marginalisation, justice and revenge. It was ideology based on three principles: A bonfire of regulation, the easiest trade deal in history, and more money for UK priorities, because we wouldnt be paying it into the EU. What did the NFU want? Minette Batters That Wageningen piece of research was enormously helpful in how we continued to have the conversations with our members, across our democratic structure, because the NFU is totally democratic in the way that it operates and having independent economic analysis helped underpin the evidence base. The romantic novelettes were written in approximately two weeks and published under a pseudonym that remains a secret. minette batters We did still have the practical issue though to register as either Remain or Leave with the Electoral Commission so as not to fall foul of the impending spending limits on our activity. Its also so complex, this area. But that F4 group is still trying to work through these thorny areas. Were you very engaged with what the UK was looking for in the TCA on that? But I think, as the farming unions, we were all in the same place of wanting an approach that kept the UK internal market functioning fairly, and that there werent winners and losers. It was then, that we established our new EU Exit and International Trade Directorate. In September 2007, Walters released her fourteenth book, The Chameleon's Shadow, in the UK. Trade is such dry policy, that a lot of people, particularly in the media, were not taking the time to understand it. Her novels are often set against real backgrounds and real events to draw her readers into the 'reality' of what she is writing about. When I see the out-of-home sector has been offline, with everybody buying products out of retail, prices in the red meat are pretty good because retail has become very loyal to British sourcing, because the British consumer has demanded it. MINETTE BATTERS: I have huge admiration for farmers across the world, not least our cousins in Australia and New Zealand. So, from our point of view, it was important to have bilaterals with our opposite numbers and allow them to lobby their governments on what was needed. We know that agriculture is always a big facet of trade deals, particularly with the people that the EU has failed to do trade deals with. That was primarily because of the WTOs Most Favoured Nations rules, where you cant have one rule for the EU and one rule for the rest of the world. Weve always maintained that, in the UK, we dont want to lower standards, but there has always been a concern as to what imports and the future of international trade will look like. Weve got to be able to look at, actually, how we enable these growers to have access to the workforce that they need. Weve got higher standards, with many of the producers sitting above European level. But I was well aware that wed burnt quite a lot of bridges with people, who felt that the NFU had behaved badly. I would pose the question what does that mean for government buying standards? We established that body, because we realised this was going to be massive, it was going to mean change, and we would have to think and operate differently, in order to satisfy our members needs for knowledge on all of this. We ended up facing three no deals, essentially, in the end, all of which were avoided. The EU, of course, are taking that to say, Products are coming into the UK so easily, not getting checked, this is going to be your policy for the rest of the world. She supplemented her salary by writing romantic novelettes, short stories, and serials in her Above all else, I want to see honesty to farmers about the road that they are on from our political leaders. The NFU wanted MPs to have more say on trade of agrifood. Which, of course, it should never have been, because that was about food safety and what we were wanting to talk about was food values, and the laws of our land. If you want to find a solution, youve got to pitch them as a solution and youve got to work out what that actually looks like. How worried were you that the Government was very keen on a deal with the US? Weve legislated to achieve net zero, but there is so much that can be achieved through new policy thinking as to what that looks like, and ultimately, our opportunity to influence European thinking. And what I wanted to say was, Agriculture is the solution in all of this. So, I think we pretty soon realised that this was going to be difficult. Minette Batters It was never going to be, for them, the same as remaining part of the single market. Apr 13 2023. I can remember challenging him at our February 2019 annual conference. Because whatever we allow Australia to do, dont forget weve then got New Zealand, weve got Canada, and of course, overlaying all of that, weve got the Trans-Pacific deals. Her second novel, The Sculptress, which was inspired in part by an encounter Walters had as a volunteer prison visitor, won the Mystery Writers of America Edgar Award. IMDb is the world's most popular and authoritative source for movie, TV and celebrity content. We cant have one standard for one and not for another. minette batters To our minds, this had been a democratic decision of the nation. So, the CAP was a multi-annual budget that sat outside of parliamentary cycles, so you got the budget, which I think annoyed others, in the NHS and education why did agriculture have special treatment? The contestants were Brendan Cole, Sherrie Hewson, Kelvin MacKenzie, Matt Allwright, Angela Griffin and Diarmuid Gavin. He knew the Department inside out; he knew farming well. So, it was never about an unfair approach and it was never about a protectionist approach. I think it poses big questions for international trade. Movies. So, I think, then, there were some very tough conversations. Minette Walters - Wikipedia Wedding and Corporate events venue. The fundamentals that we had taken for granted free and frictionless access to the largest trading block in the world, and free movement of people, which gave us access to a competent and reliable workforce were front and centre. I speak to my opposite number in France, Christiane Lambert, who is President of the FNSEA, the French version of the NFU, getting her to lobby the French government on why we need border control posts, Calais being pretty pivotal in all of this. Its not perfect by any means. But more generally, he was embarking on a quite radical reshaping of agricultural support and the post-CAP regime. We recognised how split they were, but all sides were united in that they had a complete thirst for information. They have two sons, Roland and Philip. Get personalized recommendations, and learn where to watch across hundreds of What we are seeing played out and its showing more with fish is that groupage is really difficult. MB: I think there were some. My meeting with the Prime Minister in October last year, 2020, was absolutely pivotal in getting the Trade and Agriculture Commission over the line. UKICE: In terms of getting ready, we had the negotiations going on, but there was a need to prepare for a rather uncertain change of regime at the end of 2020, when the transition ended. Within four months, it had won the Crime Writers' Association John Creasey award for best first novel[3] and had been snapped up by 11 foreign publishers. MB: I think weve always recognised, from day one, how difficult Ireland is. We knew that we could have a global scheme, that it didnt all have to be about Europe, but with a reliance in the seasonal workforce, of 80,000 seasonal workers, to pick and pack and plant our fruit, veg and flowers. Of course, if in effect you listen to everybody, then it does allow you the opportunity of going away and doing your own thing, because youve got all these dissenting voices. I can remember, it was either Justin Webb or John Humphreys, saying, This isnt the Agricultural Bill, this is the Environment Bill. It was a formidable coalition. There are a lot of high standards in America. This arguably makes her the most powerful farmer in the UK; she We had implemented laws that were based on food values, and yet we werent prepared to look at that in other parts of the world. Britain's most powerful farmer says dad would be minette batters Minette Batters, NFU President NFUonline Minnette Batters POLITICO But that didnt stop us from getting stuck in. Knowing where the Treasury had been, having made clear over the last 11 years that if there was the chance, they would remove direct support payments to farmers, we also wanted to know what that would look like. So, he did, in the early days, in 2019, sign up to the importance of the Trade and Agriculture Commission, writing in ink that he agreed with the concept and would look to establish such a body. Has this led to a fundamental change in the relationship between the NFU and the governments of the different parts of the UK? You know, weve got a government that now is saying its banning live animal exports, and it wants to have higher standards across the board of food production. Dont forget, Michael Gove did not hold back in this arena, he is well documented and publicised. As the May Government was starting to develop its vision of its Brexit, we had ministers, not least Liam Fox, talking about doing trade deals with the US, and the big summer 2017 bust-up over chlorinated chicken. Release Calendar Top 250 Movies Most How does it feel for the industry? It just isnt going to work like that. Her husband, Malcolm, is not involved Minette met her husband Alec Walters while she was at Durham and they married in 1978. WebOn 19 April our Environmental Change & #FoodSecurity inquiry heard from @HenryDimbleby; @Minette_Batters, @NFUtweets; Peter Dawson, @dairyuk; @suepritch, @FFC_Commission; and Chris Brown, @asda. Weve got the climate here to be growing it. You didnt know what your workforce was going to look like, you didnt know what the future policy was going to look like. We never even got close to that. Its only when commodity prices are impacted, and the future support mechanism is changed- if that isnt right, that is when things will start to erupt, and that is what weve got to try and avoid. Minette Batters - Biography - IMDb I think Defra has very strong views on all of this, I know George Eustice does. There isnt a silver bullet, but ignoring the situation and saying it isnt important is not a way forwards. Its a tense time right now. We needed to be able to work together, to shape what the future needed to look like. Now with correct twitter handle! Within six months of that new government I was conscious that wed led the standards campaign. I sat back down next to him and I said, What do you think? And he looked at me, slightly surprised, and he said, I think youre very brave. Because at the end of the day, the NFU is going to be pivotal in this major re-set moment. Youve got Defra, effectively, leading on border controls and things like export health certificates. In fact, the solid line from the NFU had been that we wanted to maintain our high standards of animal welfare. So, I think everybody no matter what they say now was in total shock at what had happened. And Chequers definitely gave way to those conversations happening in a constructive manner, without doubt. Or did you think it was just so unthinkable and such a bad thing, that you werent even prepared to talk about it with government? But it was always going to need a bespoke model. It would help if we could speak to those who are leading these discussions. But do bear in mind that a precedent had already been set. So, there is a lot of water, I would say, to go under the bridge before that question can be answered. To undermine our farmers, when you want them to have regulation that costs a lot of money, and undermine them with cheap products coming in that dont even meet the first rung of the ladder, was going to do one thing, and that was going to put our farmers out of business. Five generations of her family have run the farm but, like the new NFU president, she is the first woman to take the reins. Home; Service. NFU President Minette Batters UK egg production has fallen to its lowest level in nine years. My predecessor, Lord Henry Plumb, had taken a position when we entered the Common Market in 1973. The NFU launched a levelling-up report, because when we look at the whole levelling-up agenda, it cant just be about north versus south, weve got to look at opportunity across the whole country. Her first full-length crime novel, The Ice House, was published in 1992. UKICE: Just on that, the Government has also moved to be more flexible on using neonicotinoids than it was before-. UKICE: We saw the very hostile reaction from EU political leaders to Chequers, but I wondered whether you got any sense from your sister bodies in France, Denmark, Netherlands, places that were concerned about UK lowering standards and the implications for that on agri-food farming, that they thought Chequers was quite a clever wheeze? We had other members who were saying, You cannot take a position, or, If you do take a position, it must be vote Remain, or, It must be vote Leave. To get to wholesale ways of trading, whereby you have one truck full of one thing, is going to be easier to resolve. 2001 The CWA Gold Dagger Award (shortlist): 2006 Quick Reads Learners' Favourite award: 2007 Coventry Inspiration Book Award: This page was last edited on 5 April 2023, at 20:13. 48-52% was always going to be challenging, divisive, but to have another referendum, we didnt believe would have made any difference at all. MB: There was an element of, Goodness, what is this going to look like? That isnt going to happen overnight, because weve actively pushed people away from doing those jobs. I have to say, at that time, that was so needed, because we had to work through a process. But weve got to be able to do it in a way that has the right policies in place to deliver whats needed. minette batters @Minette_Batters Wiltshire farmer: beef, sheep and arable. Suddenly, the environment was rising up the agenda and everybody wanted a slice of it, and he was running the show. It took two and a half years to write and was rejected by numerous publishing houses until Macmillan Publishers, bought it for 1250. The EU are now really having these positive conversations, and the Commission has come out positively, saying, Actually, on plant breeding, weve got to look at the opportunities around that resistant crop. History will judge what we did harshly if we get it wrong, so we cannot afford to miss a beat. UKICE: You seemed to have managed to at least persuade Michael Gove, Secretary of State, of some of that, because he was on the other side of that argument with DIT that summer. She graduated from Trevelyan College, Durham in 1971 with a BA in French. UKICE: Did any of your members, who might have been inclined to support Leave before the referendum, have second thoughts? Minette Batters I think there was a sort of realisation then that, actually, they hadnt got this quite right, and they needed to be talking about farmers, about food production. How concerned were you about that part, as well as the trade side? From my point of view, I wanted to keep the market, the business, alive, bearing in mind that these are perishable products that we are dealing with. There are different moving parts to all of these things that, I think, make it a challenge to resolve. We must make sure that even the poorest in our society have access to high quality British food, which they currently do. Those principles would guide the discussion. And at the moment, what we are finding is that there are so many moving parts to the level of engagement with different trading partners. Which means there were nearly a billion less eggs produced in 2022 compared to 2019. Its really key, though, to say on the information available, to remain in the EU. Ms Minette Batters: Brexit has been a face-slapping moment for
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