The Farming Industry has laid down the gauntlet to Liz Truss by stressing that with the global food system in crisis, British farmers will need to become increasingly resilient and say that disruption to agriculture must be kept to a minimum in order to achieve future food security.

Phil Stocker, National Sheep Association Chief Executive said : “The political turmoil unfolding over the past months came at a time of significant volatility across the farming industry with rising input costs, changes to farming policy and the rollout of future farming schemes. It is reassuring that so far the Secretary of State and Farming Minister are still in post but disruption to agriculture must be kept to a minimum. The current political landscape around the world means that it is essential to have a united and stable government that isn’t distracted from its task and can embed food and farming policies that span beyond parliamentary terms.”

Liz Truss has previously committed to making British farmers more competitive ‘freeing them to grow more sustainable and high-quality British food in order to enhance our nation’s food security’. Specifically, her commitments are to cut red tape, and to make it easier for farmers to access the workers they need, achieving this by a short-term expansion to the Seasonal Worker Scheme while working with industry to address longer-term skills shortages and promote labour-saving technologies.

Mr Stocker added: “I welcome comments made by Liz Truss recognising the importance of farming and food production, and her intention to protect agricultural land from non food producing activities. I also welcome her ambition to reduce red tape for farmers – although many before her have made similar commitments that have not been realised. However, NSA will be keeping a close eye on the direction of travel with trade given that the former Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs was the architect of the recent Australia and New Zealand trade deals – neither of which we see as being favourable to the British sheep sector.”

Country Land and Business Association President, Mark Tufnell, said:

“No Prime Minister in the last 20 years has had an ambitious strategy for the rural economy.  This has to change.

“Years of neglect have led to an 18 per cent productivity gap between the rural economy and the national average. Closing this gap would add £43bn to UK GVA (Gross Value Added).

“A new £110m support package announced this weekend to support rural businesses was a welcome start. This funding will kick-start the green shoots of recovery for the rural economy.  Whilst this announcement, made in the Government’s ‘Delivering for Rural England’ report, is a good start, it does not fully address the challenges faced by rural businesses.

“As PM, Liz Truss must go for growth, laying out in detail her plans to deliver genuine planning reform, full connectivity, a simpler tax system for diversified businesses - and a Whitehall shake up to encourage cross-departmental cooperation. Otherwise, her Party risks losing the hearts and minds of 12 million rural voters.”

Chief Executive of the Soil Association Helen Browning calls on Liz Truss to back their vision of a future where everyone has access to affordable, healthy and nutritious diets, underpinned by a resilient food system that protects nature and climate.

Writing to the new PM she said; “With the global food system in crisis, British farmers will need to become increasingly resilient.  Economic and environmental shocks are now so commonplace, it cannot be business as usual. This year’s rising input costs coupled with drought conditions, as devastating as they’ve been, are symptoms of the disrupted climatic and political environment that are unlikely to stabilise and farmers are going to need help to adapt, then thrive.

“This means nurturing a resilient and diverse agricultural sector, one underpinned by the principles of agroecology which allows us to move away from the use of toxic agrichemicals and synthetic nitrogen inputs. Setting ambitious pesticide and nitrogen reduction targets in law would send a bold signal about the direction of travel in this regard.

“The Environment Land Management Scheme (ELMS) concept of public money for public goods is therefore the right one, and a necessary precondition to securing our future food security. It is essential to build on the commitments of support for a transition to whole farm agroecological systems rather than risk an ineffective piecemeal approach. Recent research, commissioned by the Food Farming and Countryside Commission has demonstrated how a wholesale uptake of agroecology in the UK, with an accompanying shift in diets can generate significant benefits for our health, biodiversity and climate, whilst also enhancing our food security. Furthermore, we’ve shown recently that agroecology is a good business choice provided that farmers are properly rewarded for the public goods they deliver across the farm. Our newest initiative, Soil Association Exchange, is tackling this head on by monitoring the outcomes of farming systems which will assist government and the private sector in evaluating and rewarding land managers for the public goods they provide.

“And at the core of this whole farm approach we need a ‘farmer-led tree revolution’. By offering the right advice, alongside financial support and investing in markets and supply chains, Government could increase and revitalise farm woodland and agroforestry on farms across the UK. We’ve recently calculated that it would be possible to deliver 355,000 hectares of farm woodland and agroforestry cover in England alone, with little impact on food production, whilst also improving farm business resilience.

“If we don’t get food and farming right, we’ll fail on all our other ambitions too. Promoting the right solutions is an investment in the health of our nation and the future of the natural world on which humanity depends. As millions across the country struggle with the cost-of-living crisis, this investment has never been more crucial.”