Farming’s role in beer production should be celebrated, NFU President Peter Kendall told a Westminster audience yesterday at the launch of the new ‘Grain to Glass’ report.
The joint initiative with the British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA) demonstrates how the brewing supply chain contributes to economic growth and showcases how beer and pubs can underpin the rural economy and create much-needed jobs.
More than 100 MPs, Lords, barley farmers, hop growers, brewers, publicans and journalists attended a Westminster launch event yesterday (November 23).
Speakers at the event included Peter Kendall, BBPA Chairman Ralph Findlay, Agriculture Minister Jim Paice and Molson Coors Supply Chain Director Lee Finney.
In the report foreword, Peter Kendall and Ralph Findlay set out their recommendation to shape a brighter future for farming, beer and pubs in rural Britain: “Beer and pubs are an essential part of what it means to be British. But the beer supply chain also plays an important economic role in providing jobs, adding value to farm crops and generating millions of pounds for the rural economy.
“This report sets out, for the first time, the scale of the interdependence from grain to glass and challenges policy makers to match the importance of the beer supply chain with actions to enable it to reach its full potential.
“If we want our countryside and rural communities to flourish then farming, beer and pubs must be at the heart of our economic growth strategies.
“There is much we can all do to build on one of Britain’s largely unsung economic success stories including more effective promotion of rural pubs, removing burdensome red tape for farmers, support for brewing as a home-grown industry with a rich heritage and brighter future and a renewed focus on local sourcing of food and drink served in pubs.”
Watch video of the Grain to Glass launch here.
To see photos from the event please click here.
Click here for a copy of the Grain to Glass report.
- marti bazeley - 25/11/2011
This is a good initiative for beer promotion, but it needs a change of attitude from the press. The column space given over to wine is really quite staggering. Wine choices with different foods, new wines arriving on the shelves of xxx supermarket @ £xx.xx, wines for Christmas, whole wine supplements last Saturday it’s almost enough to make me give up buying the papers! Who benefits? Foreign producers, importers of wine and supermarkets! And all this when British beers have never been so diverse and varied, produced entirely from British ingredients, with British labour and available mostly from independent retailers