A top level meeting between the Manx National Farmers’ Union and government ministers is taking place this afternoon.
It comes after the MNFU issued a vote of no confidence in the senior leadership of the Department of Environment, Food and Agriculture. That led to a response to the union from the new Chris Thomas administration
Ahead of the meeting today (October 30), the MNFU issued a statement saying: “Last Wednesday the Board of the Manx National Farmers’ Union reviewed the communications from the Chief Minister’s Office and issued an invitation to meet with the Chief Minister, the new DEFA Minister, the IOM Government Chief Executive Officer, and the Chief Officer of DEFA.
“The meeting is set to take place this afternoon.”
Challenge to Government
An MNFU spokesperson added: “The agenda for the meeting is that Isle of Man Government present a satisfactory resolution to the vote of no confidence in the senior leadership of DEFA taken by the Manx National Farmers’ Union.
“The purpose of today’s meeting is to establish how IoM Government will address the issue before them so that the industry can have the confidence that politicians are taking the island’s farming and food security challenges seriously.”
The MNFU says it has given the DEFA, under new minister Dr Rachel Glover, an opportunity to “provide evidence of work on outstanding issues”.
But added: “We have not yet received response on this.
“The industry wants to have a constructive relationship with the new minister and today’s meeting will be key.”
The Trouble with DEFA
In the letter sent to Chief Minister Chris Thomas and Tynwald members earlier this month, the MNFU argued that confidence in the department had “broken down” following a series of disputes over agricultural funding, food security, livestock imports and market access.
The union said the decision stemmed from what it described as a lack of understanding of the challenges facing agriculture, poor delivery of strategy, failures in decision-making and an absence of progress on urgent industry issues.
The six-page letter identified a number of concerns, including the island’s BSE risk status divergence with Great Britain, support for local food production, agricultural funding, food security policy, ongoing issues at Isle of Man Meats and difficulties importing breeding stock from Northern Ireland.
