FARMERS should be assisted to improve the environment, not to produce surplus food, DEFRA Minister Margaret Beckett told the Oxford Farming conference. "The pressure to reduce market-distorting subsidies is probably at an all-time high," she said. The public wants better value for the billions of pounds spent each year on agriculture.
In an interview in The Times, she said many farmers were complacent in failing to take up free business advice offered by the Government in the wake of the FMD crisis. Farmers should "get real" she said and seek advice that would help them convert struggling farms into modern businesses.
Updated: 09:08 Thursday, January 10, 2002
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