UFU president David Brown speaks to the Farming Life during the launch of the NI Farm Family Day campaign.
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00:00 David, tell us a bit about today's event and sort of the purpose of it.
00:05 Well I suppose fundamentally, you know, we do hear from time to time a little bit of rhetoric around, you know, factory farming and, you know, the issues that perhaps are perceived to be environmentally related to that.
00:16 What we wanted to do, I suppose, in making this an annual event, is highlight that the vast majority of our farmers are working in a Northern Ireland setting on what we describe as family farms.
00:27 Where basically they're sole trader or they're owned and occupied by the farmer and his spouse, wife, husband and perhaps a next generation on some of those farms.
00:37 Hopefully a next generation on those farms because we see generational renewal and the desire to pass on those farms.
00:43 Most of those farmers will work towards obviously passing on to a next generation.
00:48 They want to do that in a sustainable way. They also want to hand it on in a way where actually that farm is in a better condition.
00:55 So we're not setting out to, you know, do anything to damage our environment and we enjoy and live in that environment.
01:02 So fundamentally, you know, that's an important part of the community that we live in.
01:07 And you've obviously met with the new farming minister as well. That's been a positive meeting.
01:11 Yeah, I would say so. I mean, I did have a few conversations with him prior to engaging.
01:16 We brought the office power team along to meet with him Wednesday, you know, just almost two weeks ago now.
01:22 That was an opportunity, I suppose, for us to bring formally those issues to highlight them.
01:29 We normally, as we did with the previous minister, we try to curtail that down to 10 points.
01:34 And obviously within those, there's a conversation. We had a good hour and a half or more with him.
01:39 He had set aside 45 minutes, but was absolutely in no rush away.
01:44 So I think he engaged well. It was probably fair to say that, you know, two weeks into the job, you know, he had his team of civil servants around him.
01:54 And, you know, many of the issues he was aware of, you know, and had a desire to work on and understand.
02:02 So I think he was very much in listening mode and that is as much as we can expect at this stage, I think, in terms of informing and helping him understand the concerns and the challenges that face agriculture.
02:12 face agriculture.
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