Wincanton Farmer Meets the Prime Minister

Ruth Kimber, an outspoken campaigner for farming in general and dairy farming in particular, had a chance to put some of her concerns to the Prime Minister, David Cameron, when she was invited to meet him at a meeting at Taunton Cricket Club last week.

Ruth, who farms at Higher Stavordale,Charlton Musgrove, with her husband Paul and their family, is an active member of the National Farmers Union, a former Somerset county chairman and member of the NFU dairy committee.

The Kimber family, who have farmed at Charlton Musgrove for centuries, have a popular farm shop and run stalls at Bath and Salisbury Farmers Markets, and several Dorset and Somerset Farmers Markets.

Ruth says she was surprised to be invited to meet David Cameron, but she took the opportunity, during a 10 minute chat, to raise a number of issues, including the current state of the dairy industry, the difficulties of encouraging young people to enter farming and her strong views on the decision not to continue and expand the badger cull.

She said she had given the Prime Minister a package of information from the NFU about the floods in Somerset, TB in cattle and the Compete to Grow campaign, which is seeking support from the relevant government departments to make it as easy as possible for dairy farmers to be able to export their products.

Ruth also told David Cameron that she and her husband had driven back the previous weekend from Scotland, a distance of 536 miles along the M6 and M5, past endless road works with no one working. She says she told him to tell the Chancellor that if he wanted to create jobs, this was a clear opportunity – increase the workforce by 2/7s to cover the weekends, boosting employment, cutting road congestion and reducing fuel consumption and pollution.

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