Buy local to save farmers, urge Miller and Carmichael
Mr Glen Miller, the East Londonderry Ulster Unionist Party Chief Spokesperson, and Mr Robert Carmichael, the East Londonderry UUP Association Chairman, have urged constituents to ‘support local, buy local’ to help the hard-pressed farming community combat the effects of the recent “smash and grab” Labour Government Budget.
In a major statement on behalf of the association, Mr Miller and Mr Carmichael have also warned that the constituency’s farming community needs urgent action from the Stormont Executive, too, if it is not to face the same financial ruin that happened to Northern Ireland’s linen industry.
Mr Miller and Mr Carmichael said constituents needed to be aware that this ‘smash and grab’ inheritance tax policy was coming from Westminster, not the Northern Ireland Assembly.
The UUP duo said: “Agriculture is one of the main industries in this predominantly rural constituency and our farming community was already strained to breaking point a number of years ago because of the Covid crisis.
“East Londonderry’s farming families provide a massive contribution to the social, economic and environmental life of the constituency. In the face of the various economic millstones being heaped on East Londonderry farmers by the Labour Government’s ‘smash and grab’ Budget, it is a time for urgent action in terms of cash aid from the Stormont Executive, not pathetic words of sympathy or empty promises from Westminster.
“The agricultural community forms not just a major part of the commercial backbone of East Londonderry, but also of this entire Province. We must not allow the fight to save this important industry to become a party political or sectarian football.
“We appeal to the entire East Londonderry community to unite behind the constituency’s farmers in this their latest time of crisis.
“The livelihoods of many thousands of people in the farming industry are at risk right across the Province. However, it is not only those directly involved in farming who stand to lose if the Ulster agricultural industry goes under financially.
“The vast consumer market in Northern Ireland will also suffer. They represent the hundreds of thousands of people in the Province who buy farm produce, such as beef, bacon, eggs, poultry products, and vegetables.
“Various sectors of the Province’s farming community have suffered drastically for more than a decade. The beef, poultry, pig and land-based farmers have all faced financial ruin in recent years.
“The time has come for a community-wide campaign to save our farming industry, whatever the sector. This united campaign must spread across every city, town, village and hamlet in our Province.
“The people of Northern Ireland can help considerably by ensuring when they buy their groceries from the shops and supermarkets, that they only purchase commodities produced by our local farmers.
“In this fight to save our local farming industry, each of us has a role to play. Let us all move forward together as a community and ensure that the Ulster farming industry survives well into the new millennium,” said Mr Miller and Mr Carmichael.