The Soil Association welcomes today’s announcement by Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Steve Reed, that the new government will introduce a new deal for farmers to “address low confidence and provide stability” for UK farmers.

Soil Association Policy Director Brendan Costelloe said: “It has never been more important for the UK government to back British farmers, so we welcome today’s commitment to restore farmers’ confidence. Food production in the UK is threatened by climate change, and we cannot just import from overseas as every country faces similar challenges. Our farmers are custodians of 70% of the UK – we won’t solve the climate, nature and diet-related public health crises without them. But farming is vulnerable, with too few farmers able to invest in making it more resilient.” 

The Soil Association is particularly pleased to see a renewed commitment to a land use framework, which will allow us to think about food production on a landscape scale and decide what and how we should farm, in which location. As highlighted in an open letter https://www.soilassociation.org/news/2024/july/22/back-british-fruit-and-veg-new-prime-minister-told-3/ to Keir Starmer last week, the Soil Association is calling for support to get more British produce on our plates.

The  campaign https://act.soilassociation.org/save-our-fruit-and-veg urges government to introduce a target to double the land used for British fruit and veg production using nature-friendly methods, including in and around our towns and cities.The charity also welcomes the plans to use the government’s purchasing power to back UK produce.

British schools and hospitals should be prioritising British and nature-friendly farmers, like organic – as caterers working with Food for Life https://www.soilassociation.org/news/2024/july/31/food-for-life-caterers-are-putting-uk-grown-fruit-and-veg-back-on-the-map/ are doing. Costelloe added: “We urgently need more – not less – home-grown fruit and veg, or we face further disaster for supermarket shelves, our health, and the environment. And with more wildlife on organic farms, Westminster must catch up with Europe and Scotland by setting a target to increase the only certifiable form of regenerative farming.

Rising demand https://www.soilassociation.org/certification/organic-market-report/ for organic food should not be provided by imports when it could be produced by our own farmers. “After years of uncertainty, farmers need stability so they can invest in resilient, nature-friendly food production, so we welcome the commitment to stick with the Sustainable Farming Incentives policy, and action to prevent trade deals from undercutting sustainable British farmers. We urge this new government to go further in ensuring farm support policy also helps to protect farmers from the shocks of climate change. This must involve greater support for farmers to incorporate more trees on farms and to improve soil health – both of which are essential in the face of extreme weather.”