No clear path for agriculture

Farmers let down by strategy

THE GOVERNMENT’S new food strategy was a perfect opportunity to allay the fears of farmers here in Yorkshire and nationwide about the direction of their industry and prospects.

However the reaction has been lukewarm, to say the least, to a plan that could have been a bold statement of intent for the future of agriculture in Britain.

One priority for ministers is to reduce the distance between farm and fork, with a vision for 50 per cent of public sector food spend to go on food produced locally or certified to higher standards.

The strategy also sets out plans to create a new professional body for the farming and growing industry to boost training and equip businesses with skills needed to work sustainably and profitably.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that innovation and technology in agriculture could “bring costs down for consumers” and allow for more domestic food production.

These sound like positive measures, but critics were quick to stress there was little detail included.

Meanwhile, the National Farmers Union said ministers had “stripped to the bone” proposals from a previous review by Leon restaurant co-founder Henry Dimbleby, and Labour said the document was “nothing more than a statement of vague intentions”.

Kath Dalmeny, chief executive of farming group Sustain, went further: “This isn’t a strategy, it’s a feeble to-do list, that may or may not get ticked.”

The post-Brexit era has been a minefield for the agriculture sector, with the pressures of labour shortages leading to rotting crops, combined with anxieties over food standards and the Australia trade deal. These have been exacerbated by fuel and fertiliser costs.

Yorkshire’s farmers needed to see some light at the end of the tunnel with this strategy but it seems a distracted Government has failed to deliver.