National Farmers Union

Spokespersons for the National Farmers' Union (NFU) have become
familiar faces on television in recent years, due primarily to food
industry crises such as BSE and foot and mouth disease. The
organisation represents farmers in England and Wales and this site is
produced for them as well as the general public. As the site informs us: "Its central objective is to promote the
interests of those farming businesses producing high quality food and
drink products for customers and markets both at home and abroad.
Central to this objective is its encouragement of
environmentally-friendly and welfare conscious farming practices and
a desire to ensure the long term survival of viable rural
communities." The NFU focuses a great deal of attention on developing
access to new markets (essentially foreign), while encouraging
British food buyers to source locally. It also tries to encourage a
greater understanding of farming and rural life amongst the public,
especially school kids.



SPECIAL FEATURES:


Homepage is the section most relevant to the average punter. It
presents current information and comment from the NFU on a variety of
subjects from how to find your nearest farmers' market to Q&A about
the recent foot and mouth crisis.


News and Information has reports and articles covering industry
policy, reform and analysis to download, plus press releases.


Education "It should be the right of every child to visit a working
farm during their school career in order to see where their food
comes from," says the NFU. This section outlines the National
Association of Farms for Schools' program in this area which includes
teacher support packs and contact details for the NFU's educational
consultant.


About NFU covers details of membership, presidents and opportunities
within the organisation, but also the history of the NFU, which is
rather interesting. It began in 1904 thanks to a group of
Lincolnshire countrymen concerned about the decline of the
agricultural industry in the UK and the story sounds tremendously
current. They were disturbed by cheap imports of grain from North
America, beef from Argentina and dairy products from Australasia. The
union didn't really hit its stride however until the First World War
when importation of food became difficult.



Other features


Membership information, publications and services available to members



Summary


A useful reference, particularly when you are actively concerned
about food industry crises such as foot and mouth.