In the Farmers’ Guardian today, Chester South and Eddisbury MP Aphra Brandreth said “Government needs farmers onboard if the UK is to successful reach its climate and nature goals”.
“If you want a practical and successful climate and nature policy, you need farmers on board. It is not a surprise to me that when I am out and about, farmers and growers often talk about the weather.”
Weather
“But this is not just small talk, their businesses are some of the most exposed to the impacts of climate change, including increasingly unpredictable and extreme weather.
From one of the wettest periods ever recorded, we have then seen one of the driest springs in decades and now a heatwave with exceptionally high temperatures, all of which will mean continued pressure on farm businesses.
This underlines the fact that farmers need to be at the heart of actions to tackle climate change, restore nature, and increase resilience.
After all, given that 70% of UK land is used as farmland, we simply cannot achieve our shared and ambitious environmental and nature goals without farmers.
However, I am concerned that this is not the approach being taken by the current Labour Government.”
Spending Review
“Before the recent Spending Review, there had been briefings that the nature friendly farming budget was to face serious real-terms cash cuts.
Thanks to some effective campaigning, the Government did not follow through with this.
And the overall £2.7 billion annual allocation for farming and nature recovery combined looks, on the face of it, broadly in line with previous budgets.
However, a closer look at the details reveals what could be the start of a worrying trend.”
Nature friendly farming Budget
“Within that budget, there is a reallocation of funds, with the farming and countryside programme funding actually falling by £100m a year, which the NFU president has warned will mean ‘farmers will have to do more with less'.”
Inheritance Tax
“On top of this, the Labour Government is continuing to proceed with the immensely damaging family farm tax, and there is uncertainty over how future Environment Land Management schemes will operate.
I know from farmers that I talk to in my constituency and elsewhere,
There is a feeling of a re-prioritisation away from farmers towards conservation groups taking place when it comes to who Government sees as its key partner in maintaining and improving our environment.
Both, of course, have a vital role to play.”
Climate
“However, I am strongly of the belief that having practitioners like farmers, who lead these efforts, means we are more likely to get practical solutions which allow climate and nature aspirations to be properly weighed alongside food production.
Government needs to look at solutions like this instead of burdensome new taxes.
The UK has made great strides in reducing emissions, cutting them faster than any other major economy but, as we look further ahead, we need to reject the extreme voices who want to seriously cut back our livestock sector or push up already unsustainably high energy costs.
British livestock production, of which my constituency is a major centre, is already amongst the most efficient and sustainable in the world, with estimates suggesting their emissions are about half of the global average.
And on top of this, a significant proportion of the land used would not be suited to other agricultural uses.
Government needs to ensure that it is allocating the right amount of resources to further increase productivity as well as ensuring that nature and climate mitigation actions go alongside rather than displacing production.
Actively managed pastures can effectively absorb carbon sink.
Farmers can ensure hedgerows are managed in a way that creates good quality habitat.”
Post-Brexit farming policy
“Much of this may not seem new – as it is exactly the type of thinking that successive Conservative Defra Secretaries drew on when designing post-Brexit farming policy – but it now needs restarting.
My message to the Government is clear, if you want a practical and successful climate and nature policy, you need farmers on board.
Sadly, the evidence to date suggests this point is yet to land.
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