The Government must work with farmers to encourage good trade deals that preserve UK export standards, the Archbishop of Canterbury has said.

Archbishop Welby was delivering the annual Henry Plumb Lecture to the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) on Monday night. The NFU represents 48,000 farming businesses around the country.

“In a post-Brexit era, a time of such globalisation, our farming communities can lead the way on food standards, animal welfare, trade and exports that make people’s lives better and more prosperous around the world,” he said.

Since Britain had left the European Union and its trade deals, the farming community had a unique opportunity to be at the heart of building and rebuilding relationships abroad. “Making the most of the overseas market post-Brexit is crucial. We need to get our trade deals right to protect the world-class British standards of farming — bad deals risk exporting environmental and animal-welfare harms and destroying farmers’ livelihoods.

“Government needs to partner with farmers to build global ambition and increase the British food brand identity across the world to grow global markets.”

He continued: “The new Agriculture Act means there is an opportunity for British farming to become a global leader in sustainable, climate-friendly, high-standard food production.”

Farmers, like the clergy and churchpeople, were also well-placed to bridge the gap between rural and urban communities at home, Archbishop Welby said. There was much ignorance in the UK about the realities of farming and rural life, particularly within urban communities — which, he said, need “to understand better the value rural Britain offers”, the challenges it faces, and what is behind the food on people’s plates. (At the start of the lecture, he admitted to learning much about the difficulties of farming life from the Jeremy Clarkson series on Amazon.)

The U.K. will set up a new commission to inform its post-Brexit agricultural policy, bowing to pressure from British farmers and potentially complicating trade negotiations with the U.S.

Facing strong calls from the National Farmers’ Union to uphold food and animal welfare standards in future trade agreements, International Trade Secretary Liz Truss said the commission will produce an advisory report focusing on how to avoid unfair competition.

The commission will “help inform agricultural trade policy and apply appropriate safeguards in U.K. free trade deals,” Truss wrote in the letter to NFU President Minette Batters. “I wholeheartedly agree that any trade deal the U.K. strikes must be fair and reciprocal to our farmers.”

A parliamentary committee in the United Kingdom has put forward an amendment to the Agriculture Bill to protect food standards.

Members of the cross-party Environment Food and Rural Affairs (EFRA) Committee made the move after a hearing with representatives from the agriculture, animal welfare and trade sectors this week.

Members of Parliament (MPs) heard from Emily Rees from Trade Strategies, James West of Compassion in World Farming and Nick von Westenholz from the National Farmers’ Union on how the U.K. can ensure imports under new trade agreements are produced to the animal welfare and environmental standards expected by the public.

The amendment will ensure food imported as part of future trade deals meets or exceeds British standards on production, animal welfare and the environment.

The government has previously said the U.K. will not compromise on its standards of food safety and animal welfare in future trade agreements.

A no-deal Brexit will put the future of an endangered group of forest giraffes in jeopardy, conservation experts have warned. 

Around 70 okapis, which are from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and have a brown body and zebra-like striped legs, reside in zoos in the European Union where free movement rules support an inter-country breeding project.

Should Britain, which houses 15 okapis, crash out of the EU without a transition deal, it would probably be removed from the project.

Sander Hofman, general curator of Antwerp Zoo in Belgium, who coordinates okapi relocation for reproduction, said: “Brexit is very bad news for conservation breeding.

“Fifteen out of my 73 [okapis] are in the UK. You can imagine that if I need to remove these 15, it would be a big blow for my population but it would be even worse for the UK colleagues.”

According to European commission figures, 10 countries – including theUK– are set to be fully compliant with the new legislation by the time it comes into effect on 1 January 2012. Thus consumers can be sure that eggs from those member states have been produced in relatively high welfare conditions. But eight countries – includingPortugal,Belgium and Poland– are not predicted to make the grade, with more than 17 million hens expected to remain in old-fashioned battery cages by January.”

This story reminds us of how difficult it is for compassionate farming to compete in a global environment. It justifies more of us “growing” our own eggs – I have 5 chickens (Buff Orpingtons) which cost nothing much to keep and are great fun. I think encouraging people to think more effectively about the food they eat and encouraging them even in very urban environments to have a go at growing their own is a really useful thing local authorities can support. Jessica and I have developed food and farming strategies on these themes with the support of local authorities in the South Pennines, Yorkshire Dales, Pembrokeshire andCornwall. I would be happy to share the outcomes of our work with any local authority readers interested in taking a positive leaf out of the book of these councils.