CHURCHGOERS will be asked this weekend to pray for the country’s arable farmers who face ruin after crops have been destroyed by heavy rain.
The plight of the “barley barons” has found sympathy even with Lord Haskins, the Labour peer and rural expert, who has often angered farmers with outspoken remarks about agricultural subsidies.
He said yesterday that arable farmers stood to lose more than farmers hit by foot- and-mouth disease three years ago because state compensation was not available.
In acute cases, where farms had been completely flooded, there might be a case for an emergency payment, he said.
Ministers at The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs are monitoring the situation and may be ready to speed up payments to help farmers with cashflow problems.
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Payments are usually made in November or December, but Tim Yeo, the Shadow Environment Secretary, has intervened and written to Margaret Beckett, the Environment Secretary, asking her to support the National Farmers’ Union, which is urging for the cash to be paid in October.
Some of the worst-hit farms are in the North East, in Labour strongholds such as Tony Blair’s Sedgefield constituency in Co Durham and farms in the Scunthorpe seat held by Elliot Morley, the Environment Minister.
The bad weather has blighted traditional harvest festival thanksgiving services in some areas, and special prayers have been written by the agricultural chaplains Canon Sally Fogden, of the Edmondsbury and Ipswich parish, and Canon Tony Ingleby, of the Diocese of Truro.
THE WAY IT IS
From Canon Ingelby’s prayer
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This weather isn’t a punishment. The spoiling of the crop, the extra time it takes to harvest what we can . . .
the poor quality, the low price, it’s not a punishment; it’s just the way things are from time to time.