Last June The Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries and Food (MAFF) organised a visit to Alvis Brothers, large farmers and cheese makers, where consumers could meet Lord Donoughue, Parliamentary Secretary at MAFF and his team.
Margaret Rowden of Bath and District Consumer Group writes:
I represented NfCG and Mrs Toogood, also of Bath Group, represented the National Federation of Townswomen’s Guilds.
Nick Green, Farms Manager of Alvis Brothers, talked about their business:
There are several farms. Crops are grown to feed the cattle, the milk goes to the cheese factory, the whey from the process helps to feed the pigs, the slurry from the pigs fertilises the fields and so the circle is completed. Organic milk is brought in to make organic cheese. There is a farm shop where produce is sold.
The party was taken to one of the farms where they went round the milking parlours. This is where the media representatives made their presence uncomfortably obvious. Lord Donoughue’s every movement was recorded and, during a visit to a field containing some cows, he gave quite a lengthy interview. Consequently, when we arrived back we were running late, which was a pity as it meant that following events were rather rushed.
Back at the main complex we dressed up in white coats, wellies, hair nets and hats to enter the cheese factory. Strict attention was paid to hygiene. The tour was very brief and ended at the farm shop where we were able to taste the mild and mature Cheddar Cheese, made on the premises. Both where excellent.
The party then went to the Cadbury House Hotel where a buffet lunch was laid out for us. Waiting there were representatives of various organisations, assembled to meet the Minister. These included two Regional Directors from the National Farmers Union (NFU), a local farmer who was chairman of the NFU Public Affairs Committee, the Regional Secretary of the Country Landowners Association as well as representatives from the Transport and General Workers Union (TGWU).
The lunch was rather rushed. Each representative was asked to state what his or her main concern about food or food production was in about four sentences. These ranged from the plight of the small farmer, through the reform of the Common Agriculture Policy, to support for rural life and farm workers. At least three of us expressed concerns about genetically modified foods, the use of these novel foods in mass food preparation and the necessity of labelling foods with genetically modified constituents. Lord Donoughue gave a brief answer to each person, expressed his support for our concerns, and the meeting (and lunch) was over.
I do have criticism of the meeting. I understood that we were all to meet with the noble Lord and have time to express our concerns to him, but he spent more time with the press than with us as a group. Despite this concentration on the press I have seen very little coverage of his visit; there was a small item in the Western daily Press and nothing else.
I feel the emphasis should have been on his meeting the guests, not the press. The TGWU representative had travelled from Dorset to exchange a few sentences with him. For myself, I would have liked to be able to spend more time at the cheese factory and in meeting and exchanging views with the other representatives from the different organisations.
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