Wales Assembly statement on Brexit and Our Land - Jun 4

We also know that there are changes that are happening that we can't control, that the weather patterns are changing somewhat dramatically right across the world, not just here. So, the climate change is happening and what we might be able to use our land for will equally change also. I think the other thing that is happening is people's diet is changing and what they are choosing to eat isn't necessarily any longer the red meat that we are producing.

So, whilst we need to look at going forward, I would ask that we examine what we currently do with our land, particularly within agriculture, because I notice that one of the key areas that you intend to support is improving productivity. I would like to understand exactly what that means, because if we're talking about producing more red meat, more dairy, which means intensive farming, then that's also going to take up more land. And as I've just said, we've got weather patterns changing, and already this year we've seen some struggles in terms of feeding that increased livestock. So, we could put undue pressure on the land that we have if we don't think about those aspects.

It is also of course about land use, not just farming. So, I want to bring the debate into other areas, and particularly when we're looking at flood risk management. I'm really pleased to see that that is mentioned here and I look forward to seeing more detail around that. But I think again, you know, it does say 'our land', so if we're talking about flood prevention, it can't just be agricultural land, it has to be land use absolutely. So that has to be avoiding, when we're building housing estates—. It has to be the case that that is land use. Before we put a house on any land, it would have been a green space. It would have absorbed and kept all the water in situ. And we can't carry on just putting that down through drainage. And I know that we've got sustainable drainage systems.

So, I'm looking forward to seeing the next stages, but I'm simply trying to widen it. And so when we're talking about land use, you won't be surprised that I'm really pleased to see that nitrate vulnerable zones are in here, because the way that we use the land, or the way that we abuse using the land, will eventually find its way into the rivers. We have seen this week—just this week—dead fish floating, yet again, along the rivers where I live. Now, that's the evidence that we can see. What we can't see is they're absolutely destroying the river underneath. If the fish are dying, everything else is dying as well. So, again, I'm going to link that up with intensive farming. I want to be mindful that we're not moving along in a situation where (a) we're using up untold land to produce red meat that fewer people want, but we're also producing more slurry and we're not, it seems, in some cases, being careful about handling that or inspecting the way that it's handled, so it's actually polluting the river.