Consumers and retailers, as well as Welsh farmers must strive to put sustainability first in 2016, Hybu Cig Cymru – Meat Promotion Wales’ (HCC) chairman, Dai Davies has said.
“Climate Change is indisputable and we all have our obligations to the reduction of emissions agreed by the international community at the Paris talks in December.
“However, the Welsh livestock farming community is only one small component within the colossal change required. More must be done to integrate our efforts into a wider programme of action that includes public awareness, retailer policy and consumer behaviour as well as producer husbandry,” Davies said.
According to Davies, whilst Welsh farmers can play a leading part in fighting global warming, it must be in a structured response and all other partners, including consumers and multiple retailers, must take full responsibility as well.
“Consumers can support farmers by hunting down and buying local. Retailers can help our producers to be environmentally and economically sustainable by taking action to protect the consistent supply of efficiently produced Welsh red meat to the consumer - and not succumb to the temptation to undermine it by flooding the market with cheap imports that have been shipped around the world and dramatically upset production patterns,” he said.
“With red meat, like all other commodities, sustainability can only be achieved if spot profits are shunned and there is no fuelling of inappropriate consumer responses ahead of wider environmental concerns.”
This story was originally published on a previous version of the Meat Management website and so there may be some missing images and formatting issues.
