This week, the Member of Parliament for Brecon and Radnorshire hosted the first session of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Farming.
Miss Jones recently created the cross-party group of MPs to discuss issues affecting the agricultural sector and to make recommendations to government. The group boasts members from the Conservative Party, Labour, Liberal Democrats and Democratic Unionist Party.
Over 50 industry experts and parliamentarians joined this week’s meeting which focused on the issue of animal welfare. Attendees learnt about an app designed by the Scottish Rural College, supported by supermarket Waitrose, to monitor animal behaviour and attitude. Speakers included Andrew Booth, a dairy farmer from Dorset and SRUC academic Professor Francoise Wemelsfelder who has led the research.
The presentations were followed by a robust question and answer session on benefits and impact this approach could have for farmers.
Commenting on the meeting, Miss Jones said:
“Getting the Farming APPG off the ground is something I’m extremely proud of. It’s essential that there is a vehicle in Parliament for discussing farming policy and providing Government with suggestions and ideas.
“Our farmers in the UK produce world class food to extremely high animal welfare standards and the app we learned about today gives us the data behind that. It is vital that we recognise this fact, and it is respected in future trade deals and wider government policy.”