Farmers should be paid for services which benefit society, report states

I suspect not everyone will be happy with this view – but it does reveal the scope for new and exciting thinking on a whole range of issues if we can only get Brexit as a process out of the way! The article tells us:

Farmers should get paid for a range of benefits and services that society needs, such as healthy soils and clean water, according to a new report.

The Wildlife Trusts has published policy proposals for the future of farming and land management in England – entitled “What Next for Farming?”

The organisation believes that farmers should get paid for a range of benefits and services that society needs – but which farmers can’t directly sell as they can with food.

These benefits include healthy soils, clean water, clean air and climate change mitigation, flood risk management, better natural habitats, abundant pollinators and healthy people.

Yorkshire Wildlife Trust has taken these policy proposals and applied them to the River Aire catchment – in a new report also published this week.

This case-study shows how changing policy in this way and directly contracting farmers could deliver public benefits and services.

It concludes that a move away from subsidy to direct public contracts for identified public goods, if managed well, would be “transformational” and secure environmental, quality of life and economic benefit.

The report states that a new contract – between land managers, the Government, taxpayers and consumers – could secure the future of not just wildlife, but farming communities.