Farming Matters!

The future of the Ash Moor burial pit at Meeth near Petrockstowe in North Devon seems to have been clarified by a statement from Animal Health Minister Elliot Morley. He has given an assurance that it will be restored to its natural state before being sold.

However the asking price of £350,000 for a site whose commercial value is given by the local farming community at around £50,000 seems excessive.

This uncertainty about the future ownership and possible use of the site has led to a continuing feeling of mistrust in the local community. Promises have been made in the past and either forgotten or ignored by both Government Ministers and the Prime Minister himself. The most famous (or infamous!) of these was Mr. Blair’s comment to West Country farmers, at the height of the Foot and Mouth Disease epidemic, on ‘Supermarkets having the farming community in an arm-lock over prices’, and the need ‘for us (the Government) to do something about it’.

Sadly, nothing has been done by ‘the Party of the Countryside’ to rectify the imbalance on prices for farm produce. With that precedent in mind is there any wonder that there is a deep mistrust when ‘assurances’ are given on other things.

The words of Jesus recorded in St. Luke’s Gospel, Chapter 16, verse 10 should be noted by every politician: “He who is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much: and he who is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much.”

TWB August 2002