NEWS
NATIONAL FOOD STRATEGY
– FOOD FOR THOUGHT
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A Kent-based think tank has welcomed the UK’s long-awaited food strategy but claimed that the Government has “ignored the importance of rural issues in critical national policies for far too long” and is now playing catch up. A statement from The Rural Policy Group (RPG), which has been campaigning for greater self-sufficiency since it was founded, went on to point out: “The rural economy is a vital part of our economy and impacts health and climate policies, making it essential that it is given more consideration.” The RPG held a national conference at the end of May, focusing on “creating a sustainable farming economy” and bringing together a number of highlevel speakers. The conference called for the UK to be 70% selfsufficient in food production by 2030 to support the rural economy and end the reliance on cheap imports, and argued for a fairer distribution of value throughout the food supply chain. The RPG aims to highlight the key issues of food security, return on investment for farmers and producers and issues around more sustainable agricultural and rural businesses to maximise the contribution farming can make to reducing the nation’s carbon footprint. Following the launch of the Government’s food strategy, which DEFRA said would “back our farmers by helping to increase domestic production, spread jobs and grow the economy”, chairman Mark Lumsdon-Taylor said that while welcome, it was
light on detail. He commented: “While the Government has just announced its food strategy as a blueprint for how it will back farmers, to date there have been no policies. “Health, energy, transport, technology and climate are all big areas of focus for our government, and while that is not wrong, food is a basic need and we need to get it right. It should be a long-term strategy, rather than a reaction to the immediate shortages posed by the war in Ukraine. “Our policies on food are critical to both the health of the nation and our net zero targets. If we don’t focus on food, we risk everything else that we invest in health and climate.” He said the RPG conference had outlined “a broken food supply system with unfair distribution of value in the supply chain that leaves farmers at risk of failure and the country in a position of food insecurity”. Phil Acock, chairman and managing director of Fourayes Farm, told the conference: “All we ever debate is the price of food, but compared to other countries in Europe, our food is not expensive. We don’t value the food that we produce and there is a very real hidden cost in keeping the price of food low, both in terms of quality and the impact that low-quality food can have on our health.” Rachel Nutt, Partner at RPG sponsors MHA Macintyre Hudson, chartered accountants, outlined the challenges being faced by farmers still grappling with Brexit and the Ukraine war. “When the Basic
Payment Scheme ends, nearly half of farms will be loss-making, which will have severe impacts on employment, the countryside and the accessibility of nutritious food as part of the national diet,” she said. “The new Environmental Land Management scheme just doesn’t cut it.” The RPG’s Annual Report, Shaping the Future of the Rural Economy highlights that good food is costly to produce and suggests that the country needs to recognise the value of farming to the economy, the environment and health and recognise its value in the food chain. DEFRA said government plans, which include incentives for industry and investment in research, would support farmers to harness innovative technologies “to boost home-grown fruit and vegetable production and in turn create new job opportunities across the country”. The strategy commits to “broadly maintaining the current level of food that we produce domestically and boosting production in sectors where there are the biggest opportunities – such as horticulture and seafood." The announcement said £270 million would be invested across farming innovation funding programmes until 2029 aimed at unlocking technologies to drive sustainable farming techniques which will help increase productivity and profitability and the sector’s long-term resilience. The Strategy follows last year’s independent review of the food system by Henry Dimbleby, which analysed the challenges facing the food system.
TRACTORS ATTRACT ATTENTION The sight of 60 vintage and current tractors drew an appreciative crowd as they spent a sunny early summer’s day wending their way through the beautiful countryside and apple orchards of Kent. The charity tractor run was the 13th to have been organised by Philip and
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Debbie Broad and family and raised an impressive £2,400 for the Farming Community Network charity. Philip and Debbie welcomed the convoy to Mote Farm, Ivy Hatch at the start of the day, where bacon rolls and hot drinks got things off to a good start. A half way ‘pit stop’ in one of Robert Mitchell’s beautiful flowering orchards gave drivers and passengers a chance to sample some of the grower’s refreshing apple juice before they headed back to Mote Farm for delicious homemade cakes. Villagers young and old came out of their homes to wave and watch the spectacle travel around the roads in convoy.
