Politics
On the ground Have you ever wondered what you could do on a personal level to make sure British farming’s voice is heard? Former Student & Young Farmer Ambassador Karl Franklin spoke up in front of his local council earlier this year, and this is what happened:
I
may have finished as an NFU Student & Young Farmer Ambassador back in December, but my campaigning and support of British Farming is definitely here to stay. During a Young Farmers’ committee meeting in January, I heard that Oxfordshire County Council (OCC) were proposing to serve only vegan food at their cabinet meetings. Now, I feel it is important to say that I have no problem with people choosing to be vegan, but I did know I needed to get involved in opposing this decision. They proposed this change on the basis that that eating a vegan diet is more sustainable and better for the environment; sadly this
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is just not true. With my history of being an NFU ambassador, it was decided that I would represent the Oxfordshire Young Farmers (of which I am vice-chair) to try get the council to re-think their proposal and put actions in place to support local farmers by purchasing a balanced, seasonal and locally-sourced menu. The original plan was to speak at the full council meeting in February, for which the great NFU team helped me write a speech so I could feel confident speaking in front of an audience bigger than I ever had previously. After all this effort, the council announced they were dropping me from their public speaking section as the matter was not on the agenda. I was absolutely gutted, but fortunately I had a BBC Radio Oxford interview organised before the meeting and a TV interview with BBC South Today as they were still keen to cover the story. Determined not to give up yet, I was invited to speak at the cabinet meeting in March. At this point, I thought the story
might go quiet but less than a week later I received a call from BBC Radio 2 to speak on the Jeremy Vine Show. I debated with Liz Leffman, the OCC Chair. Once again I received support from the NFU in prepping for this debate. It was a great experience to debate live on the radio, as was speaking to stand-in host Tina Daheley. The day finally arrived for me to speak at the cabinet meeting, and despite giving talks to groups of more than 80 people
May 2022
12/04/2022 11:50:48
