LIKE many farming families, our summers are punctuated by agricultural shows. Many a holiday has been strategically booked to avoid clashing with the Pembrokeshire County Show or our local Pembroke Show.

Agricultural shows are for celebrating the best of farming and the countryside and showcasing the positive aspects of rural life.

But this year there will a cloud hanging over the events which cannot be ignored.

For very many farmers working the land, farming is not a profitable business at the moment. A combination of factors all coming together at the same time have conspired to create the worst of all worlds. Milk prices are down, cereal prices are depressed and the markets for beef and lamb are struggling. And there is still uncertainty over what shape the future Basic Payment Scheme will take in Wales.

Throw into the mix the implications of the UK leaving Europe, and you have the recipe for a perfect storm. Or not possibly?

Those who want the status quo maintained argue that the UK can’t afford to turn its back on the money that farmers and landowners receive from the EU. They fear that a government independent of the EU would never support farming to the same extent.

But what we mustn’t forget is that although much attention is given to the subsidies paid to farmers, this represents just a small percentage of the money given by the UK to the EU annually. Is it really a bad thing then to cut out the middleman and pay support direct to farmers?

There is concern that exiting Europe will destroy the export market but even if there was some truth to this, all the more reason to revive the connection between restaurants and markets and local producers.

The UK has been over-dependant on food imports for far too long - let British farmers feed Britain!?It wasn’t that long ago that the EU banned all our beef exports into the EU. Should we really therefore be relying on the EU as a 'secure market'?

Britain is a net importer of food which surely gives British farmers a ready made home market. If we channelled some of the money saved from our EU membership into our own industry we could all enjoy the world-class produce grown at home.