{"id":6299,"date":"2026-07-24T14:41:27","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T14:41:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.johnwhittingdale.org.uk\/?p=6299"},"modified":"2026-07-24T14:41:51","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T14:41:51","slug":"supporting-maldon-food-producers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.johnwhittingdale.org.uk\/?p=6299","title":{"rendered":"Supporting Maldon Food Producers"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t<div data-elementor-type=\"wp-post\" data-elementor-id=\"6299\" class=\"elementor elementor-6299\" data-elementor-post-type=\"post\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-153905c e-flex e-con-boxed e-con e-parent\" data-id=\"153905c\" data-element_type=\"container\" data-e-type=\"container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"e-con-inner\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-744b836 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"744b836\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"PDq2pG_selectionAnchorContainer\" data-start=\"606\" data-end=\"839\">Sir John Whittingdale MP welcomed Dr Neil Hudson, the Conservative Shadow DEFRA spokesman, to the Maldon constituency for a visit to three of the area&#8217;s leading food producers: Kelly Turkeys, Missing Gate Vineyard and Maldon Oysters.<\/p><p data-start=\"841\" data-end=\"1051\">The visit provided an opportunity for Dr Hudson to hear directly from local businesses about the challenges they face, including Government regulation, rising employment costs, business rates and energy prices.<\/p><p data-start=\"1053\" data-end=\"1481\">Highlighting the importance of the sector to the local economy, Sir John said that Maldon is &#8220;very fortunate in having a wide variety of high-quality food producers&#8221;. He thanked Dr Hudson for taking the time to meet representatives from three of the constituency&#8217;s successful businesses and confirmed that he would be raising the issues discussed with the new Ministers at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.<\/p><p data-start=\"1483\" data-end=\"1608\">The visit reinforced Sir John&#8217;s commitment to ensuring that the concerns of Maldon&#8217;s food producers are heard in Westminster.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-df1e148 e-grid e-con-full e-con e-child\" data-id=\"df1e148\" data-element_type=\"container\" data-e-type=\"container\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-f701338 elementor-widget elementor-widget-image\" data-id=\"f701338\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"image.default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"800\" height=\"800\" src=\"https:\/\/www.johnwhittingdale.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Whittingdale-Maldon-Food-2-2-1024x1024.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-image-6303\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.johnwhittingdale.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Whittingdale-Maldon-Food-2-2-1024x1024.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.johnwhittingdale.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Whittingdale-Maldon-Food-2-2-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.johnwhittingdale.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Whittingdale-Maldon-Food-2-2-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.johnwhittingdale.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Whittingdale-Maldon-Food-2-2-768x768.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.johnwhittingdale.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Whittingdale-Maldon-Food-2-2.jpg 1073w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-aff33b7 elementor-widget elementor-widget-image\" data-id=\"aff33b7\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"image.default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" width=\"800\" height=\"800\" src=\"https:\/\/www.johnwhittingdale.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Whittingdale-Maldon-Food-3-2-1-1024x1024.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-image-6305\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.johnwhittingdale.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Whittingdale-Maldon-Food-3-2-1-1024x1024.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.johnwhittingdale.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Whittingdale-Maldon-Food-3-2-1-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.johnwhittingdale.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Whittingdale-Maldon-Food-3-2-1-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.johnwhittingdale.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Whittingdale-Maldon-Food-3-2-1-768x768.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.johnwhittingdale.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Whittingdale-Maldon-Food-3-2-1.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-3136e0e elementor-widget elementor-widget-image\" data-id=\"3136e0e\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"image.default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" width=\"800\" height=\"800\" src=\"https:\/\/www.johnwhittingdale.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Whittingdale-Maldon-Food-1-2-1024x1024.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-image-6306\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.johnwhittingdale.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Whittingdale-Maldon-Food-1-2-1024x1024.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.johnwhittingdale.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Whittingdale-Maldon-Food-1-2-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.johnwhittingdale.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Whittingdale-Maldon-Food-1-2-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.johnwhittingdale.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Whittingdale-Maldon-Food-1-2-768x768.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.johnwhittingdale.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Whittingdale-Maldon-Food-1-2-1536x1536.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.johnwhittingdale.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Whittingdale-Maldon-Food-1-2.jpg 1677w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-f9c5f5b e-flex e-con-boxed e-con e-parent\" data-id=\"f9c5f5b\" data-element_type=\"container\" data-e-type=\"container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"e-con-inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sir John Whittingdale welcomes the Shadow DEFRA spokesman to Maldon to meet local food producers and discuss the challenges facing rural businesses.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6302,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[105,104,106],"class_list":["post-6299","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","tag-defra-2","tag-essexbusiness","tag-ruraleconomy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johnwhittingdale.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6299","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johnwhittingdale.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johnwhittingdale.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johnwhittingdale.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johnwhittingdale.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6299"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.johnwhittingdale.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6299\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6312,"href":"https:\/\/www.johnwhittingdale.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6299\/revisions\/6312"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johnwhittingdale.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johnwhittingdale.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johnwhittingdale.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johnwhittingdale.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}