Action call over food security by farmers’ leader

National Farmers’ Union president Peter Kendall said he was concerned politicians were not “up to speed” on the growing issue of food security in the face of a rising global population, climate change and scarcer resources.

For example, he said, farmers are meeting the Government at today’s drought summit to discuss their part in dealing with water shortages, but reforms to tax rules meant there was no incentive to build new reservoirs on their land.

Speaking ahead of the NFU’s annual conference this week, he said the Government’s failure to bring in a groceries code adjudicator, to police the behaviour of major retailers toward farmers and processors, was “anti-business”.

“I’m frankly worried the big retailers are crawling all over Number 10 and Number 11 saying no to regulation, but having no grocery adjudicator is more anti-business.”

However, he called for less regulation to allow farmers to be more productive, suggesting the industry would do better with increased education on environmental and sustainability issues rather than rules that, for example, force the replacement of old slurry containers even if there is no evidence they are leaking.

He said: “Farming is engaging in renewables investments, looking at what we can do to reduce our carbon footprint, use less fuel, produce more in a smarter way and there’s a massive engagement in environmental schemes.”

But despite the “right” rhetoric from the Environment Department on cutting regulations and reforming EU policy on subsidies, he said he did not believe the Treasury understood the importance of such measures.