The Yorkshire Post proudly stands with tenant farmers, it’s time the Government does too
Politicians have repeatedly promised to strengthen food security in this country. Yet the current Government’s stubborn insistence on allowing good quality agricultural land to be covered with glass and metal is antithetical to this supposed aim.
No one denies that there is a pressing need to address the climate crisis. In order to do that, the planet needs to wean itself off fossil fuels.
Few other industries are impacted as acutely by climate change as agriculture and it is farmers that have the expertise necessary to protect the environment. However, a mindless drive for renewables is alienating a huge number of rural communities.
Today’s Country Post highlights a human injustice that lies at the heart of a faltering food strategy. The injustice suffered by tenant farmers. While all farmers are to be respected for the hard work that they put in to ensure there is food on the nation’s table, tenant farmers are unique in that they do not even have the land and the value that goes with it to fall back on.
These are the farmers that are working the land for the love of agriculture, for whom a food strategy that works is desperately needed. Instead people like the Sturdy family are increasingly being driven out.
Tenanted land comprises about 34 per cent of Yorkshire’s agricultural land. Driving these farmers out would lead to a significant impact on food security.
The Yorkshire Post is proud to give a voice to these tenant farmers because it recognises their importance. And this newspaper is urging all Government ministers to stop working in silos and put agriculture at the top of the agenda, otherwise rhetoric about food security will remain hollow.
Farmers at large feel like they’re living life in a kaleidoscope of contempt. That must change for the good of the nation.