NFU overwhelmed by survey response

17 September 1999

NFU overwhelmed by survey response

By FWi staff

THE National Farmers Union has taken on extra staff to cope with the volume of Audit for Action questionnaires flooding back in from producers.

Although the questionnaire only arrived with farmers in the first week of September, more than 3000 have been returned.

The Audit for Action asks farmers to describe how they have been affected by the crisis in agriculture, said to be the worst since the depression of the 1930s.

Union president Ben Gill said he was overwhelmed by the response and would use the survey to ask for government help for the industry.

“Farmers are desperate to show how the crisis is affecting them,” he said.

“They believe the government must be forced to stop and listen to their real life stories of despair.

“They want the government to hear their story and that is exactly what we intend to achieve through this campaign.”

The NFU plans to present the findings of the audit at the Labour Party conference during a mass rally of farmers in Bournemouth on Monday 27 September.