Poultry producers and glasshouse growers across Yorkshire and the North East are being urged to help the NFU fight proposals that could see more small local businesses affected by a European pollution directive originally meant for heavy industry such as power stations.
It is proposed to revise the Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control Directive (IPPC) and the result could be a lower thres
hold for laying hens, ducks and turkeys. Currently producers would need 40,000 birds before they would be affected by the Directive, but if the proposals remain unaltered producers would be affected if they have 30,000 laying hens, 24,000 ducks or 11,500 turkeys.
The proposals also include reducing the threshold for glasshouse boilers from 50 to 20 megawatts – a move that could hit the region's glasshouse producers particularly those growing tomatoes and cucumbers.
Monday 9 March is the date of the next critical vote in the European Parliament and the NFU is asking all local producers to help step up the lobbying effort and write to their MEP about how they would be affected.
"Plans to lower the thresholds for poultry units are particularly disappointing, bringing yet more businesses under the Directive and also meaning that seasonal turkey production could now be caught," said Louise White, regional food and farming adviser with the NFU.
"Christmas turkeys may only be on the farm for 15-21 weeks, but these businesses would still have to comply with hugely expensive and bureaucratic regulation. Given that many are just one or two-man businesses, this would certainly have a serious effect on their viability.
"The poultry sector is already facing considerable price pressures and that is why we want to do everything possible to get these proposals amended. The NFU is already lobbying hard in Brussels but needs its members to write to individual MEPs with real case scenarios.
"Politicians really do take notice of their postbags and having real-life examples of the impact of these proposals gives MEPs the ammunition they need to fight the more extreme elements.
"After all, this Directive was only extended to the pig and poultry sectors early in 2007, so it is far too early to evaluate its effectiveness for those businesses already covered never mind extending it to encompass yet more small family businesses."
Anyone wanting help with contact details for their MEP should ring NFU Regional Office in York on 01904 451550.
