ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the ‘partnership’ between the state and the farmer in the light of the public interest. The National Farmers’ Union stresses repeatedly its concern for the general or public interest. The concept of the public interest raises broad questions of political philosophy. These problems are of two kinds. There is first the need to relate the claims of special interests to the general welfare of the community. Second, there is the state’s concern with the equitable adjudication of conflicts between and within groups. Together with the marketing boards and the Fatstock Marketing Corporation, it established a British Farm Produce Council to co-ordinate publicity and information programmes on behalf of British agricultural products. The Union’s future course will depend upon how well it has learned the lesson that leadership of the agricultural industry requires more than hard political bargaining for a share of the public purse.
