The government must recognise the key role that farming will have to play over the years ahead in securing Britain’s food supply and fighting climate change, NFU president Peter Kendall has said.
At a reception held at the Oxford Farming Conference to mark the start of the NFU’s centenary year, Kendall told delegates that the situation in which farmers and growers were operating had changed dramatically.
“Rising world demand, climate change and energy security have combined to make agriculture a strategically important industry once again; a sector that offers society solutions, not problems, and to hear our politicians acknowledge that would be a great start to our centenary year,” he said.
Kendall went on to suggest two New Year’s resolutions for the farming industry to the conference. The president said that the livestock chain should work towards responding in the same way that the dairy chain has to changing times and recognise the fragility of local supply by entering into long-term contracts and paying remunerative prices.
The second resolution called for Defra and the government to acknowledge that things have changed. “We need to see some understanding that if we are going to be expected to produce more and improve our environmental performance at the same time - and we should be expected to do that - it will require technology and investment, and a more coherent government policy,” said Kendall. “Ending the Agricultural Building Allowance - to take just one topical example - simply makes no sense in this context.”
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