Andrew Helmer, of Chillington, writes:

Regarding Jim Stevens’ (chairman, Devon NFU) letter of September 30, in response to Mr Haddock’s article ‘NFU is woefully out of touch with non-industrial farming’.

Mr Stevens accuses Mr Haddock of making erroneous statements about the NFU but, from what I have experienced of NFU farming policy, I have found Mr Haddock’s article to be a very accurate and sadly only too true account of how the NFU has let down small family farms.

Mr Stevens claims the average size of an NFU member’s farm across the whole country is only 200 acres.

This figure is somewhat misleading as it would only take a small percentage of NFU members e.g. affluent hobby farmers with a few acres and whose sources of income are not reliant solely on farming, to join the NFU which would have the overall effect of making the average NFU size farm appear smaller. I own a small farm and am not an NFU member and know of many other smaller farms who are not members of the NFU either.

Mr Haddock is right to highlight the ‘cosy cabal of office-holders’ within the NFU who choose the president instead of ordinary members having the right to vote for the president.

It is widely reported that 80 per cent of farm subsidies goes to 20 per cent of farms. Under the current system the bigger the acreage – and consequently the more affluent the landowner – the more eligible they become for tax-payers’ money.

This unfair system has caused a farm-subsidy snowball effect. Instead of tax-payers’ money being targeted at struggling small to medium sized farms and also tenant and hill farmers, it is poured into the pockets of wealthy billionaires such as Saudi Prince Khalid Abdullah who is among the top 100 farm subsidy recipients, along with the Queen, Lord Iveagh, Duke of Westminster, Duke of Northumberland, the Mormons and Conservative MP Richard Drax.

Top of Defra’s 2015 payments list is Aberdeenshire farmer Frank Smart whose business netted £2,963,732.77 according to a recent BBC news report. Other wealthy business people conceal the size of their farm subsidy payments through various offshore trusts. Many senior grandees within the Conservative party have very close land owning connections, including the former Prime Minister, David Cameron, whose father in law is Lord Sheffield. Lady Sheffield also has her estate.

The NFU has consistently argued against any form of capping of farm subsidy; is it any wonder when all the real power and influence within the NFU lies with big farming estates? The present NFU chairman, Meurig Raymond, reportedly comes from a farm with 3,400 acres. His predecessor, Sir Peter Kendall, also owns a large estate. It is not in the interest of big farms to see smaller farms survive as, in order for these big landowners to continue fuelling their expansion, they need to be able to keep on gobbling up smaller farms.

The NFU cannot be all things to all men and certainly cannot be trusted to represent the best interests of small and medium sized farms. The big farms, who hold the real power within the NFU clearly have a vested interest in the demise of smaller farms in order to grab their land which they have targeted firmly in their sights.

Richard Haddock has lifted the lid on this sordid state of affairs and needs to be congratulated for his excellent article.