UK commercial farming can deliver on sustainability pledges if given the chance
Too few people have a rounded view of the importance of farming and in our experience particularly of its contributions to rural communities. This article profiles a very important contribution to the debate. It tells us:
A new report examining the role of commercial agriculture in the UK says it has the potential to solve sustainability challenges, generate employment and boost the post-pandemic economy.
Yet, the report warns that commercial farmers are being systematically “written out” of emerging policy in the rush to push environmental enhancement above all else.
“Commercial Farming: Delivering the UK’s new Agriculture Policies” has been released today (10 June) by the Commercial Farmers Group to coincide with the second reading of the Agriculture Bill in the House of Lords. As well as laying out the areas farming can impact positively, it argues that UK farmers should be ready and willing to compete with food imports – provided there is clear labelling identifying differences in production standards.
James Black from the group, who runs the family farming business producing pigs and arable crops in Suffolk, explains that commercial farming is important as fewer than 10 percent of farming businesses currently produce over half the UK’s agricultural output.
“These businesses are also ideally-placed to stimulate local economies, support wider industries and address pressing problems such as use of finite resources, greenhouse gas emissions, climate change and biodiversity decline. However, they can only do this if allowed the chance,” he says.
“Unfortunately, UK history is littered with the results of so many great aspirational concepts which have been poorly delivered – because policy makers have not fully engaged with the people most involved in the implementation. We must avoid food and farming becoming a casualty of this too.”