Quite a remarkable lady is Carmarthenshire-born Ionwen Lewis, now half-way through her third year in office as president of the Women's Food and Farming Union. Passionate about farming and rural life in general she has, over the past 30 months, shared speaking platforms with virtually all the leading British politicians and agricultural chiefs across the EU. Since taking up her present role she has actively taken steps to strengthen WFU's current links - and forge new ones - with other organisations and bodies within the industry. Founded in 1979 as a voluntary organisation, the WFU is committed to promoting an understanding of and confidence in all aspects of quality British farm produce. The WFU believes that by representing the best interests of consumers and producers, both the health and economy of the nation will benefit and Mrs. Lewis sees herself in something of an unique position having both a practical farmer's view and that of a consumer. "My heart is in farming. I think that the attractiveness of the countryside and the well-being of its communities are dependent on a viable farming industry," says Mrs. Lewis. "So many people don't understand the countryside and farming. I want to do all that I can to improve the industry's lot and further the wholesome image of home-produced food. The role in the education of today's and tomorrow's consumers is paramount." Mrs. Lewis, who grew up at Crugybar and had Gwynfor Evans as a Sunday School teacher, obtained her National Diploma in Agriculture at Gelli Aur, and developed her practical knowledge of farming when her family ran a livestock holding at Rhoscrowther in South Pembrokeshire. She now has her own farm near Aberaeron with a productive herd of Welsh Black cattle and a breeding flock of Texels, all pedigree, and she is kept busy producing stock for breeding as well as meat. Mrs. Lewis thrives on new challenges and, when so many farmers thoughts were turning to diversification a couple of decades ago, she took to running a now very successful farmhouse B&B, established three fishing lakes and also lets out a total what were redundan farm buildings as ten fully refurbished business units, workshops and offices. In addition to the WFU presidency, she has held office as chairman of the Ceredigion County branch of the Farmers Union of Wales and is a director and former chairman of Farm Stay UK. She is also the only person to presently hold two consultative roles with the Welsh Assembly Government, one known as Farming 2020 being a cross section group covering farming, environmental, commercial and food processing sectors and the other is the Upland Forum advising on farming issues relating to the countryside in the more marginal areas. Next Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, April 27-29, the WFU's Annual Conference is being hosted in Glamorgan by the Welsh branches and the main theme is 'Agriculture - Are we all facing up to our responsibilities?'. The keynote speaker on Monday morning is to be Mariann Fischer Boel, the European Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development.
