Mixed industry reaction to Steve Reed’s Oxford speech

There has been a mixed response from the farming industry to Defra secretary Steve Reed’s announcements at the Oxford Farming Conference.

Reed spoke about offering “a new deal for farmers” as part of a roadmap to a more profitable industry that puts food production and nature-friendly farming at its heart.

NFU president Tom Bradshaw said there were positive elements to Reed’s announcement, but warned that it ”fundamentally fails to recognise that the industry is in a cash-flow crisis with the lowest farmer and grower confidence ever recorded”.

He added bluntly: “Many are worried about making it to the end of 2025, never mind what happens 25 years down the line.”

Bradshaw highlighted the controversial inheritance tax changes, national insurance hikes, cuts to direct payments and delays to environmental schemes as reasons that many farm businesses will fail to survive and benefif from the “new deal”.

“It’s great that government thinks farming and growing businesses should be more profitable and sustainable in the long term,” Bradsaw continued. ”It’s also good to hear the government say the primary role of farmers and growers is to produce food, but how is it going to ensure food production is profitable when thousands of farmers and growers are questioning whether they’ll still be in the industry in the next year?

“The government must now face up to the reality of the fierce policy headwinds and challenging market conditions the industry is facing into and act to secure the future of British farming.”

Mandatory standards for public procurement

Also reacting to Reed’s speech, the Soil Association called for bolder action to get more sustainable British food into schools and hospitals.

The organic charity’s policy director Brendan Costelloe particularly welcomed the vow to protect British farmers in trade deals, which he said would help ensure a more level playing field for nature-friendly farming.

“But if the secretary of state wants to achieve his goal of long-term food security, profitability and sustainability for our farming sector, then simply monitoring for British food in public institutions will not be enough. We need mandatory standards that actively help to get more British food on the public plate, especially local fruit and veg in schools and hospitals – and we must make sure this is coming from nature-friendly farms like organic.”

Proposed planning reforms will also need to be aligned with broader sustainability goals, he added. “The government’s forthcoming food and farming strategies need to be bold and they need to be aligned, so they can drive the kind of farming we need to protect climate and nature by creating better markets for healthy and sustainable food, and putting a stop to harmful practices.”