Cameron speaks out on farming issues
Prime Minister David Cameron has commented on farming issues during Sunday's BBC Countrywide program. Speaking to veteran broadcaster John Craven, Mr Cameron discussed the recent announcement of pilot badger culls and the European Battery Cage Egg Ban.
Mr Cameron acknowledged that the pilot badger culls recently announced by the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) would be controversial and would cause 'no end of difficulties', but he insisted that such a 'difficult step' was still the right course of action.
“In the end our aim is healthy cattle and healthy badgers,” he said, before adding that critics of the proposed pilot culls ‘tend to forget’ that the culls had wider implications for the welfare of badgers in light of their own vulnerability to Tuberculosis.
Mr Cameron also argued that the proposed pilot culls were recommended by a review, and that the choice the government was therefore presented with had been whether to ‘sweep it under the carpet’, ignore the recommendation and announce another review, or to declare ‘let’s get on and see if it will work’.
Commenting on the recent European Battery Cage Egg Ban, the Prime Minister said those countries which did not comply should be taken to court. “If they don’t put the changes in place they are in breach of the rules, so we should have no compunction in getting the EC to really target them.” he said.
Mr Cameron also remarked upon the parallels the UK's prompt response to the Battery Cage Egg Ban had with other issues: 'We have exported a lot of our pig production, whereas if we had put in the changes at the same time as others, our pig farmers would have had a more level playing field.”
Turning to the farming sector as a whole, Mr Cameron acknowledged that farming was perceived by some in government as being distinct from other types of business, before adding that “if you talk to farmers they tell you they are small businesses and the policies they want are reduction in taxation and reduction in regulations and to make it easier to start up a business and employ people.”
With Strangles Awareness Week just around the corner (5-11 May), vets are being encouraged to share a survey about the disease with their horse-owning clients.
