The Soil Association broadly welcomes the new Farm Profitability Review but is concerned over the suggestion to weaken pesticide regulation.

The report recommends a switch to a risk-based approach, which would see regulators moving away from the precautionary principle. This could mean allowing pesticides that are likely to be hazardous to be used in farming because there is not yet evidence they have caused harm.

* Soil Association Policy Director Brendan Costelloe said: * “The last thing the UK needs is a more relaxed approach to pesticides. The Farm Profitability Review's suggestion to switch to a risk-based approach essentially means we throw caution to the wind. Time and time again we later see devastating consequences from pesticides that could have been avoided. A more relaxed, risk-based approach would almost certainly increase the number and toxicity of the pesticides that are already driving catastrophic declines in insect populations that simply cannot afford any more 'risk'. Nor can farmers afford more declines in pollinators – one of the biggest threats to farm businesses. However the report is right to call for farmers to have more of a level playing field. We should not be importing products from other countries using pesticides that are banned here. But we should be striving to level up that playing field, not level down.”

The review's emphasis on improving soil health and calls for better reporting for farms on environmental metrics is also welcomed by the Soil Association. But the charity calls for this to cover animal welfare too, as this is a subject the British public care deeply about.

The charity is now calling on the government to reinstate the Sustainable Farming Incentive as the “obvious next move”.

Brendan added: “We welcome many of the key messages and the direction of travel from this extensive report. For too long, farming has been financially insecure, and often environmentally damaging. The recognition that food production must go hand in hand with the protection of the natural resources on which farming and society depends is crucial. The report is right that sustainable, regenerative food production must find ways to become profitable. The obvious next move for government is to urgently reinstate the Sustainable Farming Incentive, which provides stability in the short-term and resilience to climate adaptation in the long-term. This is vital given that climate change is a massive threat to profitability.”