Farmers call for emergency drought meeting

Members of the Balearic farmers' unions will this morning be meeting the local Minister for Agriculture, Mateu Morro, to ask for the immediate resumption of the “drought commission” to discuss increasing financial aid for the farming sector. This year's lack of rain has extended the effects of the Balearic drought, which is the worst to have hit the region in the past 100 years. In an official statement yesterday, union representatives said that members are surprised that the Ministry has not already called the special commission together considering the severity of the situation facing farmers this winter and after yet another hot and dry summer. Farmers also want to discuss the effects of the recent freak storms which in some areas have seriously damaged crops. The livestock sector also wants to lodge an official complaint over the lack of information the ministry has been providing about foot-and-mouth and mad cow disease. Experts said this week that mad cow will continue to affect the farming community for the next five to seven years and farmers “are going to have to live with it as best as possible.”