Shailesh Vara MP attended this year’s East of England Farming Conference at the East of England Showground in Peterborough.

The all-day event, organised by Tom Martin, Chairman of the Conference, had several key speakers. These included Lord Benyon, Minister at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Lord Deben, Chairman of the Committee on Climate Change and Professor Tim Lang, Professor of Food Policy at City University, London.

Mr Vara visited a number of the stalls at the conference and also met with some of the delegates to speak about issues concerning the local farming community.

The well attended conference had a packed agenda, including sessions on considering the economic and environmental sustainability of plant production products, having additional income through diversification, ways to reduce costs and a session on the art of negotiation.

Following his visit, Mr Vara said:

“This was an important conference for the local and regional farming community and I was very pleased to attend and have the opportunity to meet a number of delegates and local firms. 

“My congratulations to Tom Martin and his team for organising a very successful event and for securing such an impressive line-up of high calibre speakers. 

“I certainly enjoyed the conference and I’m sure that the other attendees will have done so too. I have no doubt that everyone attending will have found something useful to take away from the various sessions.”

Tom Martin added:

“This has been a fantastic conference with lots of energy in the room. We have had a great many progressive farmers here looking to the future, to ensure that we can produce nutritious food whilst stewarding the environment. 

“A big thank you to all our sponsors and delegates who made the event such a success.”

Photo: Shailesh Vara MP and Robert Plumb and Steve Holloway from Soil Fertility Services Ltd, and Tom Martin, Committee Chairman of the East of England Farming Conference.