The Farmers’ Union of Wales’ campaign #FarmingMatters, which set out to demonstrate the key role that farming plays in the wider rural economy and showcase the wider social and cultural importance of farming in Wales with the wider aim of convincing the Welsh Government that it is essential to protect Welsh farming from the potential negative impact of Brexit, has been recognised at the UK Public Affairs Awards as the best campaign in Wales.
For the past 18 months the FUW has been busy highlighting why farming matters and when the UK voted to leave the EU in June 2016, immediately realised the need to raise awareness of the concerns for farming in Wales, mainly due to Welsh farmers’ strong trading relationship with the EU.
FUW Managing Director Alan Davies said: “I would first of all like to congratulate the staff at the FUW for their fantastic effort, which has resulted in the campaign being recognised as the best in Wales. For us at the FUW it became critical to highlight the potential impact any failed trade negotiations could have on the wider economy and multiple small businesses in the supply chain. The FUW further needed to create awareness, promote understanding and develop knowledge of the farming sector in Wales.
“It was determined that we needed to create an easy to remember message that raised the profile of farming in Wales and the risks to its future and we wanted this to be a phrase that tripped off the tongue.
“As the Union deals with Farming Matters on a daily basis, we saw an opportunity to use the double meaning of these words to highlight our key message. We do work on farming matters, but the truth is: Farming Matters, to so many, in so many other ways. This was seen as a neat play on words leading us to: #FarmingMatters.”
With this in mind the FUW set out to explain why and how farming matters to Members of the National Assembly of Wales and the wider public, with the view of changing attitudes and policies, and creating the understanding that family farms are the cornerstone of our rural economy.
The FUW ensured that the campaign was based on evidence in terms of importance, highlighting that farming is the backbone of the Welsh food and drinks sector, which employs 222,400 people, 17% of the Welsh workforce. The campaign further demonstrated that Welsh family farms do so much more than just produce food - they are the cornerstone of our rural economies and Welsh food production sustains tens of thousands of other businesses from upstream businesses such as feed merchants, agricultural contractors and engineers, to downstream businesses such as hauliers, processors and retailers.
In addition the campaign stressed that for every £100 generated on farm, £60 is spent within 7 miles of the farm, as well as making it clear that by managing of over 80% of Wales’ landmass, farmers play an invaluable part in managing and preserving a landscape which provides clean drinking water for millions, is diverse in habitat and species and includes more than 1,000 Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs).
The FUW, through the #FarmingMatters campaign, communicated that other benefits of Welsh farming include major contributions to negating the causes and symptoms of climate change, whether through the storage of carbon in farm woodland, hedgerows and peat bogs, or the generation of green electricity through on-farm wind and water turbines.
By providing employment and economic growth in rural areas, the farming sector also mitigates rural depopulation, protects rural culture and heritage and keeps the Welsh language alive.
“We needed a multi channel route to deliver our message and therefore arranged farm visits for Assembly Members across Wales, attended all of the Party Conferences held in Wales including speaking opportunities and conference debates at two, incorporated regular meetings with Ministers, Assembly Committees and Assembly Members, issued targeted news releases and ran a supporting social media campaign. All of this was backed up by regular repetitive and consistent messaging on #FarmingMatters,” said Alan Davies.
The #FarmingMatters campaign resulted in most Assembly Members, including First Minister Carwyn Jones, giving their clear commitment and backing to the Welsh farming industry, adopting our key messages around trade post Brexit, as demonstrated in the ‘Securing Wales’ Future - Transition from the European Union to a new relationship with Europe’ white paper in June 2017, recognising the importance of maintaining farming support after the UK leaves the European Union and backing the FUW’s call for a UK wide agricultural framework that respects devolution.
“There were also some unexpected benefits. Due to the success of the #FarmingMatters campaign we were able to convince a group of Labour politicians, primarily from urban constituencies, to come together at the Welsh Labour party conference in March 2017, to demonstrate support for rural Wales. The group is called “‘Llafur Cefn Gwlad” again a play on words as it means the “labour of rural Wales”. We will continue this campaign over the coming year and hope it will reach many more people, creating even better understanding amongst politicians and the public. ” added Alan Davies.