Part of 2. Questions to the Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd – in the Senedd at 3:01 pm on 28 September 2022.
So, I don't think there is a flaw. I think it's a complementary agenda. So, it is really important that our farmers produce food sustainably, and they do that, and they will be rewarded for that; it's absolutely right. The 10 per cent tree cover that we're asking for on every farm is to share the load across Wales. If farmers don't want to plant trees, they don't have to plant trees, but, for me, they are obviously the people we would go to to ask in the first place, but, if they don't want to do it, they don't have to do it; they don't have to be part of the scheme.
There are no such things as NVZs anymore. We brought in the agri-pollution water quality regulations; NVZs have gone. We have our net zero ambitions. We have our climate targets to meet, and I'm afraid—. We are seeing the impact of climate change now. And we know that our future generation of farmers are going to be farming in very, very difficult and different circumstances to now. We can see the weather changing; you only have to look at this summer, don't you, and at what they have to contend with.
I should say one of the things that we could do to support our farmers—and I would call on every Member in this Chamber, and that includes members of your group—is to lobby the UK Government to make sure we don't lose a penny of the agricultural budget, as we were promised.