Bishop did not pass the Buck, he went in to talk to farmers

The Rt Rev John Packer, who was in the Reeth area on Wednesday, spent more than an hour chatting informally with local farmers and smallholders.

The meeting at the Buck hotel, also attended by Canon Leslie Morley, the diocesan rural officer, and the Rev Tim Tunley, vicar of Swaledale, attracted eight members of the farming community.

All outlined the struggles they faced to remain in the industry and illustrated the decline in agriculture in the dale and neighbouring Arkengarthdale over the past 30 years.

The Bishop, who moved to Ripon from Lancashire six months ago, said: "Part of my visit to the dale is to learn something of what farming is like, what the particular pressures are and how the church might be more involved and help. I am here to listen to where you are at, what your problems and pressures are and how they affect you."

Mr Alistair Davy, of the hill farming initiative, said the industry must develop its own "spin" to counteract that generated by politicians.

"The spin we need from the church is to talk to urban people who come into the countryside but who aren't really rural people, to explain why farmers are there, explain food production and how the landscape is shaped and maintained by the farmers," he said.

"We need to explain to children why nursery rhymes begin 'Mary had a little lamb' and not 'Mary had a computer'."

Consumers should also be educated to appreciate and value good quality food. Mr Davy predicted a food shortage in as little as seven years' time as a result of expanding populations and possible climate changes.

People visiting the countryside for leisure and recreation should be made to pay towards the upkeep of that landscape, to support the farmers whose often unpaid work maintained it.

The re-definition of the former hill livestock compensatory allowance into the hill farming allowance had seen financial aid fall, said Mr Davy.

"The government said the money would go instead into environmental schemes, but it is going to advisory groups, not to the farmer who does the work," he said. "I am down £5,000-worth of subsidy and, as a result, I shall have to look for a job."

Mr Philip Metcalfe, whose family farms in upper Swaledale, said farmers forced to look for off-farm jobs to make ends meet often found that their farms, including animal welfare, suffered as a result.

Coun James Kendall, who farms near Reeth, said it was vital to keep young people in the industry: "In 1963 Melbecks moor had 23 farmers, now there are just eight. We can't afford to lose another one."

Mr Metcalfe said that, of the 80 farms in the Reeth and upper dale area, only about ten were worked by people aged under 30.

Mr Davy confirmed that the average age in hill farming was 58 and only 30pc of young people expected to take over their parents' holding. It was also important that the government recognised that retired farmers needed homes and help when they passed the holding on to their children.

Stress was another serious problem, particularly in the hills where the life was isolated and it was not in farmers' natures to talk troubles over with a neighbour.

The Bishop said he found the meeting useful and informative and asked to visit individual farms on his next trip to the area.

Canon Morley said: "There is tremendous work to be done, particularly to bring closer understanding between urban and rural dwellers. We are one church, not an urban church and a rural church, and we need to develop openness in our discussions so that urban thinking takes into account rural thinking.

"It is important for the church to know about farming, but equally important that the farmers know the church is concerned and keen to help."

Mr Tunley said the meeting had been very worthwhile and he hoped to welcome the Bishop back to the area soon.

Coun Kendall also welcomed the chance to put rural views to the Bishop. "He is a voice in the House of Lords and every little helps," he said