The Proposed New Farm Payments System

Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Environment, Energy and Rural Affairs – in the Senedd at 2:03 pm on 17 July 2019.

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Photo of Lesley Griffiths Lesley Griffiths Labour 2:03, 17 July 2019

The FUW has not forced me into saying any such thing, and I have no idea where you got that piece of information from. You will be aware that our consultation now looks at both sustainable food production and environmental outcomes. I have not visited a farm in Wales—and I have visited many, many farms in Wales over the last three years—where environmental outcomes could not be produced on that farm. I haven't come across any farmer who has said to me, 'I cannot produce any environmental outcomes on my land'. I think that the basis of our consultation shows just what farmers do already, for which they are not rewarded, and they should be rewarded. There is no market for environmental outcomes, and it is only right that if farmers provide excellent water quality and air quality, and if they are storing carbon, they are rewarded.