Environment Stewardship heralds new era for farmers - George

Commenting on the launch of the new Environment Stewardship Scheme, Liberal Democrat Shadow Agriculture Secretary, Andrew George MP said:

"This is a welcome first step in demonstrating to taxpayers that public funds can deliver public and environmental benefits.

"It is important that the inevitable teething problems are addressed and lessons are learned during the introductory period, so DEFRA and the Commission must be receptive to sensible and practical advice.

"This scheme heralds a new era of farm support for farmers. Single Farm Payments mean that farm support will be increasingly transparent and I suspect that there will be growing public demand for even more obvious benefits and greater farmer compliance. So this is going to be a challenging time for many farmers."