Ministers are backing the carbon way

EU farm ministers have backed plans to develop “carbon farming” as a new enterprise and income stream for farmers.

This is part of the EU Green Deal to achieve a net-zero position by 2050.

The thinking has been welcomed by the farming lobby, but has been criticised by some environmental pressure groups as insufficiently radical to deliver change in agriculture.

Under the plans, which are still in their early stages of development, farmers would be paid for enterprises that lock up carbon.

They would be able to secure an income stream from carbon credits, which could be sold to businesses outside agriculture that need to offset their carbon production.

Typical sequestration enterprises include forestry and permanent grassland, but the scheme’s development and credit system is in its early stages.

The OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) has said farming could have a major impact on global warning.

It says that over the rest of this century carbon sequestration in agriculture could offset 4% of humandriven carbon increases.

This would represent 10% of the reduction needed to meet the temperature goals of the Paris climate change deal.

Meanwhile, supplies, stocks and political uncertainty helped to drive up global food prices in January.

This maintains the high levels of 2020 and confirms there is little prospect of relief for consumers from food price inflation. Dairy products were one of the strong performers in January, with prices up by 2.1% from December. These have risen for five consecutive months and are 19% ahead of where they were at the start of 2021.

Prices rose for other agricultural commodities, but not for cereals the increase was negligible, with prices down by 3% compared to January 2020.

Meat prices rose modestly, but are significantly better than a year ago, having risen by 17% in 2020.

Beef prices reached a new peak with welcome signs that demand is now exceeding supplies in major production areas.

INCENTIVISED: Permananent grassland can earn Europe’s farmers carbon credits.