Harper Adams University College
Wynne Jones is the Principal of Harper Adams University College, a key UK provider of agricultural education based in Newport Shropshire. Having been inextricably linked to the agriculture sector his entire life, both personally and professionally; Professor Jones is one of the region’s key agricultural industry figures.
Amidst the continual challenges facing the rural community today, Professor Jones asserts that the only way forward in the ever-changing industry is for agricultural specialists to share knowledge and experience.
Professor Jones recently called upon the agricultural expertise at mfg to contribute towards his plea for a unified approach to agriculture and they have since formed a very good working relationship.
He comments: "At Harper Adams we pride ourselves on providing education on not merely traditional agricultural, subjects such as, say, crop growing or animal husbandry, but rather a scope of related areas. Our Rural Enterprise and Land Management Degree, for example, covers a range of topics that impact upon legal valuation and taxation issues as well as traditional resource management and planning issues.
"This is because we believe that agriculture shouldn’t be addressed as individual specialist sectors but rather one multi-dimensional rural picture.
"Globally, the farming industry is set to a multitude of changes over the next 30 years and this is why it is important that all the different agriculture strands pull together to make one coherent, and ultimately powerful whole.
"In order to achieve this, it is important for Harper Adams to not only have expertise within our own field but specialists from other areas which are closely related. This is why we decided to contact mfg solicitors. Having a vast experience in rural and agricultural affairs, along with some of the best agricultural solicitors in the country, this seemed like an obvious friendship to forge.
"Our contacts at mfg are able to provide us with excellent advice on all agricultural matters. They are able to put local rural problems and grapples into a legal context, helping to initiate change and promote solutions for our rural community.
He concludes: "All businesses in the rural community are tied together in a type of professional inter-practice – whether it’s a farm business, veterinary business or indeed a legal business, they all have to understand the issues that are important to the people they serve and mfg Solicitors appear to do that very well."
