9 Mai 2024 , Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Y Cynllun Ffermio Cynaliadwy - Rhanddeiliaid eraill
We're in Wales, though, we have loads of wind. Why do we need biomass?
9 Mai 2024 , Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Y Cynllun Ffermio Cynaliadwy - Rhanddeiliaid eraill
Okay. Thank you. That’s useful. Moving on to perennial energy crops, the Climate Change Committee has argued we should follow what England does in this incentive. Biomass schemes don’t have a very good press, in my view, so why are you arguing that these…
9 Mai 2024 , Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Y Cynllun Ffermio Cynaliadwy - Rhanddeiliaid eraill
Okay. Janet, do you want to come in on this hedgerow issue?
9 Mai 2024 , Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Y Cynllun Ffermio Cynaliadwy - Rhanddeiliaid eraill
How much of it is to do with carbon sequestration as opposed to climate mitigation, or, indeed, biodiversity crisis?
9 Mai 2024 , Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Y Cynllun Ffermio Cynaliadwy - Rhanddeiliaid eraill
Thank you very much. Thank you very much for coming to see us today. The UK Climate Change Committee has recommended extending hedgerows by 20 per cent by 2035 and better management of existing hedgerows. To what extent do the sustainable farming scheme…
9 Mai 2024 , Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Y Cynllun Ffermio Cynaliadwy - Sefydliadau amgylcheddol
Okay, but this a massive food security issue, and we aren't making the progress we need to make. So, do you think the things that you're suggesting, which are, obviously, revisiting the planning system and possibly reducing—. Why only 3 hectares? Because you…
9 Mai 2024 , Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Y Cynllun Ffermio Cynaliadwy - Sefydliadau amgylcheddol
Okay.
9 Mai 2024 , Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Y Cynllun Ffermio Cynaliadwy - Sefydliadau amgylcheddol
So you still have to have 3 hectares in order to enter?
9 Mai 2024 , Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Y Cynllun Ffermio Cynaliadwy - Sefydliadau amgylcheddol
Okay. So, looking at small farms and horticulture more generally, the CAP just excluded anything that was under 5 hectares. So, now that the Government has said that people can enter the scheme if they can demonstrate more than 550 labour hours a year—that is…
9 Mai 2024 , Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Y Cynllun Ffermio Cynaliadwy - Sefydliadau amgylcheddol
Thank you. Andrew, you'll be aware that Waitrose announced yesterday that they want to move away from unsustainable production to what they call regenerative production. So, the supply chain want evidence that things are sustainable or regenerative. How do…
9 Mai 2024 , Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Y Cynllun Ffermio Cynaliadwy - Sefydliadau amgylcheddol
Okay. Obviously, we'll have to discuss that elsewhere. Can I move on?
9 Mai 2024 , Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Y Cynllun Ffermio Cynaliadwy - Sefydliadau amgylcheddol
Okay. So, how do we guard against the existential risk that Wales Environment Link has spoken about, which is that the greenwash brigade will simply buy up the land in order to just meet carbon obligations?
9 Mai 2024 , Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Y Cynllun Ffermio Cynaliadwy - Sefydliadau amgylcheddol
Thank you. Okay. So, Alex and Andrew, you were both at the WWF seminar last Wednesday in the Senedd, and, obviously, there was a lot of evidence produced about the benefits of trees, both for making farming more sustainable as well as flood management. So, I…
9 Mai 2024 , Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Y Cynllun Ffermio Cynaliadwy - Sefydliadau amgylcheddol
I understand that. Thank you for your answer. Rhys Evans.
9 Mai 2024 , Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Y Cynllun Ffermio Cynaliadwy - Sefydliadau amgylcheddol
Thank you. Just to tackle the most contentious issue, or the one that's concentrated all the noise, which is the over-10-per-cent tree cover proposal, we've heard from the farming unions that some farms are simply not suitable for 10 per cent tree cover. Were…
9 Mai 2024 , Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Y Cynllun Ffermio Cynaliadwy - Sefydliadau amgylcheddol
What's wrong with Google?
9 Mai 2024 , Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Y Cynllun Ffermio Cynaliadwy - Sefydliadau amgylcheddol
'Simple'? You think it's a simple route.
9 Mai 2024 , Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Y Cynllun Ffermio Cynaliadwy - Sefydliadau amgylcheddol
Okay, I hear that, but what about the point made by the farming unions that there are just too many of these universal actions? I have to reach for the dictionary to understand some of it. I'm not a farmer, but it doesn't pass the Daily Mirror test.
9 Mai 2024 , Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Y Cynllun Ffermio Cynaliadwy - Sefydliadau amgylcheddol
Yes. There is no more money, so the farming unions were indicating that there should be fewer universal actions. How could that be done without diluting the sustainable farming principles, in order to leave more money for the other optional and collaborative…
9 Mai 2024 , Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Y Cynllun Ffermio Cynaliadwy - Undebau Ffermio
Fantastic. Gareth.
9 Mai 2024 , Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Y Cynllun Ffermio Cynaliadwy - Undebau Ffermio
Well, I'm talking about what we can do to mitigate it. I appreciate we can't do anything about the rain.
9 Mai 2024 , Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Y Cynllun Ffermio Cynaliadwy - Undebau Ffermio
Totally, but is it happening fast enough, given the weather extremes that we're experiencing, the amount of rainfall that's being dropped in one day?
9 Mai 2024 , Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Y Cynllun Ffermio Cynaliadwy - Undebau Ffermio
Dominic.
9 Mai 2024 , Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Y Cynllun Ffermio Cynaliadwy - Undebau Ffermio
Okay. There are lots of other things that are being proposed, like rotating crops, sowing different types of grasses to improve the permeability of the soil.
9 Mai 2024 , Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Y Cynllun Ffermio Cynaliadwy - Undebau Ffermio
You say that this has been a long-standing concern but, nevertheless, the state of our soil is causing lots of red flags to be raised about the quality of the nutrients in our soil and whether or not what we are producing has got any value as food.
