This month's Rural Matters sees Tori Osborne, Rural Surveyor at Cooper and Tanner, addressing an important issue facing domestic agriculture, currently one of the most taken-for-granted sectors there is:
We visit a supermarket or farm shop and expect to be able to choose from a selection and take home whatever food we like, whether that be British Farm Assured quality produce or cheap imports, meat or vegetables; the ability to have choice in what we feed ourselves and our families has been and should continue to be a right.
This position is now in the balance with the supply chain under threat. Even allowing for a drop in meat consumption, the reduction in beef animals meant that on the run up to Christmas 2024, Smithfield Market (wholesale supplier of meat to the majority of London shops and restaurants) had its usually full meat cold stores running at perilously low levels - a position not witnessed since the supply chain issues during COVID. Buyers are finding it harder and harder to fulfill contracts.
You just have to look at the drop in livestock numbers going through UK livestock markets – simple economics says the shortage of animals is creating the higher prices -perhaps a good thing for farmers, but many will be buying in calves or store lambs to fatten, and the repercussions are felt subsequently. The position is replicated in the US with the beef herd the smallest it has been for 80 years. Some will say go vegan or eat less meat, but some land is only suitable for grass growing and only livestock can convert grass naturally to protein to nourish us.
If meat and cereal contracts to supermarkets cannot be met by domestic producers, then we need to change direction. Your help is respectfully requested to support the local farmers who are currently rallying for a change to the Inheritance Tax rules that are to be brought in with effect from April 2026 (as well as lobbying for more parity in trade deals). The proposed changes to Agricultural Property Relief will result in many family farms being whittled down in size to pay taxes until they are too small to be viable.
Of course this is not the only issue; if in 2023 a local large arable farmer (through new environmental schemes) is offered an incentive to take his wheat crop out of production; he makes a business decision to only drill 50% of his arable area and plant herbal leys instead. There are immediate repercussions to this type of misguided support, and we are seeing these already. AHDB source referencing 2024 harvest total production of wheat, barley, oats, and oilseed rape contracted by 13% on the year in 2024 to 20.0 Mt. This remains the smallest harvest since 2020.
Glossing over poor weather and varieties, we are importing huge amounts of wheat that could be grown here instead.
AHDB source 'As of October 2024 there were 7,200 dairy producers in Great Britain. This is down 4.0% on the previous year.” On top of this UK livestock numbers themselves are lower due to farmers leaving the industry with little or no confidence or money to re-invest. Be afraid of what might fill that void.Farmers and hence food production are under threat, and they need support at ground level to help change the way that Government approaches agriculture. Agricultural land is wanted for building houses, solar farms and planting trees, but with a shrinking national agricultural output and a growing population, who is going to feed all the extra mouths? We need to encourage not penalise progressive farmers.
Farms are like ships; they are not agile, and you can’t stop them quickly; when they sink, they will take down other rural businesses with them and you can’t get them back. Crops are planned and sown a year ahead and decisions to keep or slaughter animals similarly. Farmers cannot magically produce food one day without careful planning and investment for the years prior. Surely it cannot make sense from a CO2 or welfare stance to import any more food than we do now.
Nathan Spears of The Canary sums up the position well when talking about European agriculture, but he might equally have referred to the UK: “This question is larger than rural livelihoods – it’s about Europe’s food systems, economic stability, and resilience against external geopolitical factors. The data is clear, and the warnings are stark. Europe must act decisively to keep farming a viable and attractive profession for future generations.”
If we care about healthy sustainable food and want to continue to have the choice of what we eat, then we need to act now; write to your MP about your concerns, and please purchase locally produced British food where you can. If you can’t, then ask the supermarket and your MP why you can’t – we need to protect British Farming, its future and ultimately our right to choose.
Tori and the Professional Rural Team can be contacted on 01373 831010.