Exploring the potential of local food and drink entrepreneurship in rural Wales

Study context

New integrated policy paradigms within governance in Wales have emerged that could potentially encourage the re-localisation of its food businesses and initiatives. Recent strategy developments for the food and drink sector in Wales (e.g. Welsh Government, 2010, 2014a) outline support for future growth and diversification, potentially releasing a regeneration of the food and drink sector which would deliver urgently needed employment and food services, thus improving rural Wales’ capability to feed its population. Issues surrounding economic and social change are a constant indicator of the overall health of Wales, for example, despite the potential of the younger economically active population across Wales, the general level of economic productivity is constrained by employment opportunity. This situation is a continuing and historical trend of youth outmigration, immigration of a retiring population, plus governmental challenges for Welsh Local Authorities. This article continues with a review of the context in detail, unpacking the many facets of the economic and social backdrop of the food and drink sector in Wales. Thereafter, the policy context is considered prior to an analysis of the case studies. Three case studies from social enterprise and private enterprise contexts are discussed and then further insights from a local small or medium sized enterprise (SME) are combined in discussions which highlight issues faced by food and drink businesses in the Welsh policy context.

Rural economies such as those in Wales have been dominated by farming, forestry, mining and coastal tourism. Approximately, 2.02% (6317 people) of Wales are employed in agriculture and 30% in tourism (Gwynedd Council, 2011; Local Government Data Unit, 2013), with diversification in the agricultural community long established and well recognised as a necessary source of additional income (Bateman & Ray, 1994).

With fewer than 150 persons/km² practically, the entirety of Wales is described, using the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) and Welsh Assembly Government’s (2008) definition, as a ‘rural’ region. In terms of regional economy, Gwynedd and parts of Anglesey were funded as Objective 5B lagging EU areas. Rural Wales has benefitted substantially from European funding from European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), European Social Fund (ESF), European Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee Fund (EAGGF), European Territorial Cooperation (ETC), better known as Interreg (INTERREG), Liaison Entre Actions de Développement de l'Économie Rurale (LEADER) and LEADER + during 2000–2006 and 2007–2013. ‘Under the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), some £110 million is invested annually in rural Wales through the Rural Development Plan (RDP)’ (Welsh Government, 2013).

Wales’ approaching Rural Development Programme (RDP) has been formally adopted by the EU Commission – releasing €1.13 bn (about £808 m) for farmers and the rural economy (Welsh Government, 2014b). Further funds have been earmarked for economic development and poverty reduction in rural areas (€138 m/£99 m), through grants for diversification and the creation of small enterprises and employment (Welsh Government, 2014b).

Taking advantage of these many initiatives and funding programmes, innovation based on product range, expansion, new technological investment, networking in micro-hubs and branding promoting Welsh provenance which all in turn provide opportunities for food and drink businesses. The sector in North Wales is characterised by micro-enterprises, often arising from farm diversification or lifestyle businesses often organised as novel initiatives (Thomas Lane et al., 2013a). Occasionally branded as artisan craft producers, they are limited in their capacity and strategy to respond to local demand for locally grown and processed staples and their price prevents inclusion in the weekly shopping basket as does their distribution and availability.

With diversification and the need to work differently in the rural economy, including the imperative to add value and emphasise provenance, many producers are finding innovative ways of improving their offer to both local supply chains and linking both local and international markets, often through community focused enterprise agencies. For example, in mid-Wales, a series of food and drink trails have been developed linking local producers with other produce networks.

Local producers’ markets are often unable to attract horticultural micro-producers to bring produce to markets and as such a significant gap exists for such foods. Contemporary local supply chains for fresh foods are weak and unstable and feeding into public or private procurement has not been re-built following their past demise and competition. Thus, the success of innovative practices in the food and drink sector in rural Wales has been suppressed mainly by global supply.

The CAP’s influence to date has not subsidised such innovation other than that which is directly at the farm gate by enabling farmers to trade more directly with local markets. A 2015 report by the National Farmers’ Union and NFU Cymru cites that the UK’s self-sufficiency stood at 78% in 1984, compared to 62% at present (NFU, 2015). The capability of local producers to ensure a supply of local food at affordable prices is challenged, indirectly causing food deprivation. Families or individuals falling onto hard times in modern times look to food ‘banks’ for crisis support (Feeding Britain, 2015). New ‘demands’ for food of local provenance and quality and differing calls for ‘need’ for local food by those in crisis challenges both the industry and governance. In some circumstances such as where food poverty is experienced, there may be a perverse competition between funding food heritage development being directly pitched against improving food access and security.

Due to the physical environment of the region, communities are dispersed and land management often on generally poor soil is not only driven by conservation priorities (Thomas Lane et al., 2013b) but also dependent on subsidised production in areas traditionally claimed to be disadvantaged or severely disadvantaged. Local land resource is not always managed to maximise local food outputs but to maintain its multifunctional capacity to deliver a range of goods and services.

Food-related ill health is also noted by Welsh Government as both a concern and cost. Current initiatives exist for delivering healthy foods for the public sector as well as promoting better and more affordable healthy local diets for both young and older members of the community, for example, Appetite for Life Action Plan (Welsh Assembly Government, 2008). These strategies exist most obviously in areas where the Wales Index of Multiple Deprivation (Welsh Government, 2015a) identifies that poverty may restrict access to healthy food choices or where food culture and food choices have become unhealthy and result in costly ill-health outcomes.

In recent years, some major economic and technological trends have provided new interests in innovation and economic development in rural areas as they restructure (Parrott et al., 2002). First, more people are seeking ‘quality of life innovations’ such as healthier food and environment friendly products and services. Second, the primary sectors (particularly farming) that have historically dominated land use in rural areas are acquiring new roles through increased diversification and broader multifunctional economic use (e.g. Ilbery et al., 2004; Woods, 2011). However, rural regions continue to lag behind in capitalising on these opportunities especially in respect of the food and drink sector (Murdoch et al., 2000; Ritter, 2014). In summary, the broader context of this study is one where multiple sector initiatives and funding programmes strive to provide interventions to a predominantly rural country which has a vibrant yet challenged food and drink sector. The following section looks inwards towards the Welsh SMEs discussing how they harness entrepreneurship and innovation in an attempt to improve business performance.

Active micro-enterprises (nine or fewer employees) within Wales account for 94.3% of Wales’ total enterprise sector (Welsh Government, 2011). ‘In 2010, the 190,200 micro-businesses in Wales employed 332,400 people, accounting for 32.7 per cent of private sector employment and 15.8 per cent of turnover’ (Welsh Government, 2011). The importance of supporting for innovation within this sector is key but depends on engaging a wide range of diverse and small businesses.

The three Local Authority areas included in this study typically reflect the trends of livelihoods, low productivity, demographics and mobility challenges of most of rural Wales. Employment in the tertiary sector dominates within local governance, education, leisure and the hospitality sector. Small independent retailers generally represent the local business sector which is typified on the whole by very small units (see Table 1).

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Table 1.

Profile of small businesses in North West Wales (Adapted from Local Government Data Unit, 2013).

	Number of local business units	Percentage of units by number of employees
		0–4 people	5–9 people	10–19 people	20 or more
Môn	2,865	70.5	14.7	8.2	6.6
Gwynedd	6,305	69.1	16.3	8.3	6.3
Conwy	4,845	65.7	16.7	9.5	8.1
Wales	111,680	66.4	16.0	8.7	8.9

Social enterprises are a feature in the Welsh rural economy and are ‘business[es] or service[s] with primarily social objectives whose surpluses are principally reinvested for that purpose in the community, rather than being driven by the need to maximise profit for shareholders and owners’ (Welsh Government, 2009), ‘being more active in deprived areas than SME businesses and tend to employ locally … they make an important economic contribution in some of the poorest parts of the country’ (Wales Co-operative Centre, WCC, 2015). The total value of the social business sector in Wales is estimated at £1.7 billion and is currently responsible for employing 38,000 people (WCC, 2015).

The activities of social enterprises in rural and more urbanised communities in Wales are significant agents of innovation, often delivering more intangible assets such as training and skills development, social care, composting services, sustainable land husbandry, food and broader heritage promotion and specific environmental benefits such as food miles reduction and promotion of a re-localised quality of life and economy. Many such enterprises are based on the re-establishing of local and community food activities such as land trusts and work towards promoting the re-learning of food growing and marketing skills.

Policy context

When the devolved Welsh Assembly (now Government) was established a political commitment towards a “legal binding duty” was undertaken to Sustainable Development as a cross-cutting theme (Government of Wales Acts, 1998, 2006). This was later actioned in 2009 through the One Planet Wales Vision which has recently been converted into legislation by the Wellbeing of Future Generations (Wales) Act (Welsh Government, 2015b). During the period leading up to the Act conversations across Wales occurred and national statements publicised such as

I would like to see every child eating healthy tasty food every day’ and ‘there is a need for local wellbeing plans to ensure an integrating perspective on local economies that grow under the influence of the business of public procurement facilitating low carbon plans and improving food distribution and local supply. (Welsh Government, 2015b: 13–14)

The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) divided ecosystem services into four categories: supporting services, provisioning services, regulating services and cultural services. From a landscape perspective, food production is a provisioning service, but it can also be argued that it is a cultural service, especially when one considers the aesthetic and recreational aspects of food, in areas such as food appreciation and food tourism, as well as its role in feeding mind and body. Much of food and drink promotion revolves around idyllic rural imagery and historically, some areas of Wales have strong food heritage identities, e.g. Anglesey – “Môn Mam Cymru” (the mother of Wales). Responsible ecosystem and sustainable rural development occurs where food production sits alongside community development, habitat management, climate amelioration, recreational opportunities and possibilities of intrinsic spiritual experiences.

A growth policy for the Food and Drink sector is being driven by a Food Action Plan for the Food and Drink Sector 2014–2020, (Welsh Government, 2014a) that suggests a potential target for growing sales by 30% to £7 billion by the year 2020.

Innovation is expected in the areas of product development especially in specialist foods, e.g. gluten free and also in novel food heritage offers and local food and drink promotion and exploitation, e.g. food trails as seen in Dyffryn Clwyd, business leadership and micro-business cluster organisation, branding, e.g. Village Bakery and Salt Marsh Lamb and also technological (machinery and equipment) development with upstream benefits in developing and constructing such specialist equipment. New markets in new settlements, micro-business clusters and development of existing market trading associations as well as packaging innovation, e.g. bio-decomposable materials, are also projected as opportunities for the sector to move forwards. Growing successful exports of well-known brands of more bulk produced foods and drink products are also part of the vision (Martin, 2015). Such substantial social and environmental policy commitments suggest a concerted move towards sustainable local, seasonal, healthy, accessible lower carbon (food and drink) security for all.

Several influential strategies and policies relating to the food and drink sector are summarised in Table 2.

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Table 2.

Translating policy initiatives into deliverable outcomes.

Strategy and policy	Outcomes	Delivered by	Translation into practice
Food and Drink Action Plan 2014–2020	–  Grow sector by 30% to £7 b by 2020 – Establish F&D Wales Industry Board – Food and drink Wales Brand identity & provenance	Welsh Government	Grow the Welsh food and drink sector output by 30% to £7 billion by 2020, increasing the overall profile and reputation. Establish an industry board to develop new support for training, business development, quality assurance, marketing
Food Tourism Action Plan 2015	–  Co-ordinated approach to food tourism development and promotion – Gastro-experiences – Food and drink heritage & provenance	Welsh Government	Adoption and implementation by public and private sector organisations to improve visitor access and availability through hospitality offering Welsh produce on menus. Identify skills gaps in knowledge, sourcing and preparation of local food and drink.
One Planet Wales Vision	–  National conversation on future priorities	Welsh Government	Drafting and enactment of future generations legislation.
Future Generations Legislation	–  Integrated approach to social, economic, environmental and cultural well-being	Welsh Government	Through statutory Local Service Boards, broad outcomes in order to improve quality of life, access to healthy local foods, poverty reduction and sustainable resource use.
Ecosystem Services Approach	–  The integrated management of land, water and living resources that promotes conservation and sustainable use in an equitable manner	Natural Resources Wales and other statutory agencies	Greater understanding of resource management implications on ecological change.
CAP Modulation and RDP (2014–2020)	–  Decoupling farm support from intensive production processes. – Better management of natural resources & encouraging climate-adaptation practices, with 56% of the grant pot (€595 m, or about £425 m) allocated to this. – Resources allocated to improving the food chain (€76.8 m/£55 m), supporting farmers to participate in quality schemes, local markets and short supply chains and producer organisations and groups (Welsh Government, 2014b).	EU Commission, Welsh Government and Local Authorities	Potential for supporting innovation not only through farming support but also across rural micro and SME growth. Business support infrastructure needs strengthening, better communication across food and drink sector initiated by support network, awareness of dispersed nature of the market and the sector and the challenges this generates. Strategic transparent funding is needed in order to develop smaller lesser known businesses. Local staple foods need to be an early focus.

Methods

A mixed method approach was adopted in this study. This involved a survey and interviews with key personnel which developed in-depth case studies during February 2015 – June 2015 in order to investigate the innovations of micro and small businesses in the food and drink sector in North Wales. From a survey of three local food markets across three Local Authorities and case studies of several social enterprises, a sample of 30 private enterprises were profiled to record the levels and nature of entrepreneurship displayed and to identify potential barriers for future business development. The community benefits accrued from exemplar social enterprise in comparison to private enterprise in similar geographical areas were also examined and initial reflections drawn. To complete the picture of the potential breadth and benefits of food and drink related development, recent examples of policy and specific examples of food tourism innovations were discussed.

In-depth case studies

Antur Waunfawr

Established in 1984, it is now a leading social enterprise providing employment and training opportunities focused on individuals with learning difficulties (Antur Waunfawr, n/a). The enterprise uses income from a wide range of service contracts and continued proactive grant applications. Antur Waunfawr manages a range of facilities including a café, a re-use and recycling centre which handles 15,000 tonnes of materials annually and craft workshop. The public are welcome to make full use of the centres to generate direct income. The two Executive Directors and a voluntary board drawn from the nearby communities manage an annual turnover of £2.1 million (Antur Waunfawr, n/a). The ‘Antur’ plays an enormous role in the lives of many people, having a positive effect on the area leading to the warm embrace of the local community.

Hooton's Homegrown

A family partnership Farm Shop built in 1998, is part of the Gwydryn Hir Farm of approximately 240 acres in Newborough, Anglesey. This enterprise has grown from a potato and cereals farm supplying the local area to a pick your own fruit in the 1990s and is now a regionally well-known award winning quality brand (Hooton’s Home-Grown, 2015). Diversification started with free range poultry, moving into pigs, Welsh Black Cattle and sheep providing meat for their new on-site butchery, and the Pick Your Own fruit field continues to provide summer income and fruit for ‘local jammers’ and passing tourists. Location focussed trading with food heritage is central to its brand and business vision.

The owners undertake energetic leadership of the local food sector’s involvement with local tourism initiatives and organise local produce markets along with strong networking activities including micro and small business cluster facilitation and sector communication of local initiatives that enable promotion of business enterprise and advertising of Hooton’s brand.

We get a lot of happy customers … we are known and we get busy: this is a real farm shop not a shop on a farm. We are never afraid to have a go at new things. (Interviewee 1)

Purple Moose

The Purple Moose Brewery is a ‘40-Barrel’ micro-brewery based in the historic harbour town of Porthmadog, Gwynedd. Brewing commenced on 14 June 2005 with a one-off special pale ale at 3.5% called ‘No.1’. Now 70% of production is cask beers compared to bottle split in local pubs (Mws Piws, 2015).

The business was developed out of the owners’ own interest and experience in home brewing for three years before the brewery was established. This included knowledge transfer and consultant input to produce ‘a top quality product’ with ‘a wacky label … that translates into Welsh and that works’ (Interviewee 2; Mws Piws, 2015). There is a strong connection with the local area seen in the different product lines that are named linking the beers to the local cultural and natural heritage.

Over the last two years, the business has succeeded in gaining over £1 million turnover, employing 12 staff including the owner; three new staff members were added in the last three years including a full-time sales rep to address increasing competition.

The main unique thing we have is our quirky branding and marketing gives us a fun edge … Originally our 10 years expected capacity did us for 7.5 years. Now our 40 barrel capacity that stretched finances initially should future proof us with spare capacity. (Interviewee 2; Mws Piws, 2015)

When asked about innovation, the interviewee highlighted that he had

Never really explored the true meaning of that term but I probably do fall into that category … Early advice on business planning focussed us on the market and setting targets for early sales and investing in the sales and marketing staff made a difference. (Interviewee 2)

Table 3 compares the three case studies in terms of their community assets and value added and innovative activities.

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Table 3.

Community assets and value added delivered by SME innovation.

Enterprise	Employment	Innovative activities	Community value	Facilitated by	Barriers
Antur Waunfawr	– 100 full/part time staff	Training and therapeutic services, nature trails, upcycling and locally grown food sold as a raw product and within catering facility.	Employment, community engagement, heritage conservation, biodiversity, recreational services, social and environmental care	– Community support – Range of locations – Accessibility and involvement for all	– Time – Expertise
Hooton’s Organic	– 6 full time – 2 seasonal	Ongoing product range development within a wide range of foods e.g. Hooton’s Elephant Garlic.	Fresh local fruit and vegetables, food heritage promotion, full time employment, food quality branding, community space, market association	– Local and commercial trade – Diversification – Demand – Season	– Seasonality – Competition – Price – Demand
Purple Moose	– 12 full time	Unique range of heritage lines (e.g. Dark Side of the Moose), brewery tours, local pub regeneration and distinctive merchandising including Moose ‘logo’ clothing.	Export income, full time employment, local drink heritage, micro-brewery co-operative initiatives, regeneration of shops, production tour (tourism experience)	– Commercial environment – Demand	– Competition – Price
General patterns in delivering community benefits
		Social enterprise			Private enterprise
	– Social care – Therapy – Environmental care – Hospitality services – Shared spaces – Heritage conservation			– Employment – Bulk and niche drink and food products – Vibrant settlements – Prosperity – Economic value

Concluding comments

Some of the issues identified earlier revolve around rural well-being, including aspects of funding and youth unemployment. From the case studies and their interpretation, it is evident that their innovative activities create significant community value across a broad range of areas including employment, training opportunities, environmental care and cultural heritage (see Table 3). The barriers experienced by the selection of case studies such as funding, support and resourcing could be overcome by more focused and coordinated targeting of multi-agency approaches to developing food and drink, to involve training, land use strategies and monitoring of their economic and community benefits.

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Table 4.

Methods of self-reported innovation (Survey February 2015–June 2015).

Production and manufacturing	Selling and marketing	Social response	Personal
There is no limit to the variety of confectionaries we can make!	Social media	Response to clients, especially allergies such as gluten free products	Experience
Increase efficiency	Part of the sustainability group	Social money	Hard work
Location, local food and traditional recipes	Seeking to use more locally sourced products	Working with local schools, colleges and university	Self-motivation
Grants for training purposes	Niche product	Providing training and skills development
	Artisan methods and markets

Because entrepreneurs are often considered to be at the heart of economic growth, recovery and regeneration, rural policymakers have shifted their focus to support the initiation and development of these businesses, not always leading to longer term broader rural economic growth and well-being. Rurality is viewed as a dynamic entrepreneurial resource that shapes both opportunities and constraints (Stathopoulou et al., 2004), but this dynamic may pose challenges, as reported in this study, for micro and small enterprises such as a dispersed, often seasonally fluctuating client bases and distances and costs of travel even to local markets. Most policymakers recognise that entrepreneurs usually start out with limited financing as small or medium-sized firms operating in a variety of industries and places as issues highlighted in Figure 2 as barriers to business expansion. As a result, policies generally support a wide range of entrepreneurial activities. Most local produce markets in this area were well supplied throughout the year by a sufficiency of quality niche producers, few of whom wish to grow their companies towards bulk production; thus limiting the scope for growth of local employment or of producing sufficiency for retail or hospitality focussed supply chain procurement (Thomas Lane et al., 2013a). However, gaps exist for fresh fruit and vegetables as well as supplies of cereal/flour and also some types of affordable local meats and a scarcity of seafood and fish products.

Rural areas often lack high-growth entrepreneurs. The results of this study indicate that a significant proportion of the private and social enterprises surveyed would be interested in growing their businesses, but others have other aspirations often based on lifestyle choices. Such growth often involves personal or family financial risk and requires specialist business advice and guidance towards sources of financial support from both local authority and European sources. Currently, such support has to be actively sought and often it is centralised through distance and cost. For a very small business, it is considered to be an unaffordable though recognised valuable add-on to business planning; often not taken up due to loss of production time within enterprises which may have limited staff time. This injection of advisory expert capacity for moving towards growing business has, however, been a factor leading to success and substantial increased employment of local staff for a number of the businesses discussed, for example, The Purple Moose Brewery. Strong leadership and local community support and service provision has also contributed to a return of benefits especially in the area of social care for several social enterprises investigated and can contribute to financial ‘problems’ if absent from a social enterprise’s vision, as social businesses require such engagement to draw down financial support and for their voluntary capacity. Such is the great value of local embeddedness for both the success, and growth of both private and social enterprises alike in rural Wales. A trait which is fundamentally key to the successful translation of the Food Tourism Plan for Wales (Welsh Government, 2015b) if it is to succeed in promoting and growing both local Welsh food heritage and deliver distinctive and authentic Welsh food (and drink) tourism experiences.

The privately owned companies interviewed sought to build on their location (Hooton’s Homegrown) and food growing skills and brewing expertise (Purple Moose) to develop a brand name that was well recognised and supported locally. Purple Moose has collected numerous trade accolades for quality; this year celebrates its first decade of growth and is currently actively seeking export markets for its product. The key factor in its business success was having the confidence to invest in bulk capacity early on allowing it to build successful supply chains with mainstream supermarkets at sustainable prices before the emergence of competing craft brewers. Developing such connectivity across local supply chains and networks is a noted aim in the Food Action Plan (Welsh Government, 2010), though current levels of local procurement of local foods is of concern as is support available for their development.

Scale achievement of a similar level to previous of European structural funds investment is vital for rural Wales during the next funding round, in order to sustain the basic economic functioning of many of its communities. With careful and local partnership based management and administration of such funding, this could do much to subsidise a developing rural economy based relatively remotely from large urban markets allowing growth of the food and drink sector. But delivery of funding must be strategically and well managed by local governance and with transparency. Such conditions would support the industry and tourism sector to deliver locally sustainable food and drink outcomes that are equitable for local residents’ food security and health and also to provide decent livelihoods and training for upskilling. In time, such investment would be a basis for new and continued sector innovations and also deliver some of the community benefits described through responsible growth. Integrating food tourism growth with growing affordable authentic wholesome local foods, e.g. potatoes, asparagus, strawberries and carrots from Hooton’s Homegrown and Silicon Bakery’s usual ranges and speciality Conwy Valley grown oat-bread, is an area that needs to be addressed head on and early in the next RDP round of funds. Using both cross departmental central Welsh Government and locally co-ordinated funding, mapping strategies for community food co-operatives and hubs are urgently required to supply food needs for all healthy residents as well as serve the more lucrative food desires of a few who are able to enjoy gastro-experiences. Can the recently suggested Welsh Government Food Manifesto for Wales deliver on this?

Pro-active systems of delivering advice for business development progressing into the better supporting of funding for innovation is required as the Micro and SMEs investigated suggest this is a key agency to promote sector growth as well as its absence being a barrier for possible entrepreneurship. This would mean that RDP monies and other funding should be efficiently invested early on in the funding cycle to identify both areas of potential and crisis in the delivery of food for all of Wales. Strong early initiatives would thus be able to network across EU LEADER collaborations e.g. micro-brewery and cider networks with wider learning benefits and larger potential markets. This would allow local communities to make the most of Wales’ land resource, agricultural capability, social enterprise and skills. A CAP funding regime sensibly reformed, thus allowing the RDP pillars to subsidise lower intensive, affordable healthy local food and drink production would be of great help for both healthy local communities and to boost the food tourism industry. To promote local agriculture and horticulture to supply local markets and procurement chains through subsidisation would clearly follow the One Planet Wales Vision and would be promoted through sustainable and responsible agricultural re-productivisation. This would require the food delivery and security aspects of local well-being plans across Wales to be integrated with food tourism and gastronomic development as both a localised and strategic response, allowing implementation and longer term monitoring of the Future Wales Vision, the Food Tourism Action Plan and the Food for Wales strategies.

Much is expected of our food and drink entrepreneurs. This must include our farmers and horticultural producers and also the wholesale and retail links in the food supply chain in order to acknowledge their ability and central role in co-designing the new localised food economy for Wales. May they be well supported and appreciated by the public, as well as facilitated and efficiently co-ordinated through effective policy implementation. Delivery of the value added element of Food for Wales from Wales also requires political and administrative innovation and an understanding of the real world of the communities of rural Wales in what may be our future modernised European context.