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Having grown up and worked on a mixed family farm in the West Country, I know first hand the value of these farms and, as former Environment Minister for five years in DEFRA, I was increasingly aware that these farms are an essential cog in the wheel if we are to ensure  a secure food supply and have the kind of healthy, sustainable environment that is essential to our very survival.

Get these things right – by safeguarding  and nurturing a  thriving farming industry – and society will be rewarded in spades. That is why I am supporting the ²ÝÁñÉçÇø Guardian's campaign, Save Britain's Family Farms.

Support the SAVE BRITAIN'S FAMILY FARMS campaign now

Our farming industry in its widest sense needs putting front and centre stage. We need our farmers to produce a rich diversity of food from sustainably managed land,  combining traditional  know-how with innovation.

Farming and nature

And to do this we need to support them in accessing grants for managing the soil healthily, planting trees to reduce flooding, cutting emissions, planting wild margins and managing hedgerows to benefit birds and the pollinators whose populations are in dramatic decline. We cannot meet our nature restoration targets without them.

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²ÝÁñÉçÇø are also often the glue binding our rural communities – generating jobs, coming to the rescue in times of snow and flood, clearing litter dumped in gateways. My farming father was renowned for this.

 They need to be recognised  for all this with a wider understanding of just what our agricultural industry represents. Do this, and more enterprising young students will be drawn to this unique business.

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