The Soil Association was disappointed to see inaction on decarbonising the UK's farming sector today (Thursday 30 March) on what was dubbed 'Green Day' as the government revealed plans to reach net zero. 

Soil Association Head of Farming Policy Gareth Morgan said: "It's shocking that the government's so-called 'Green Day' brings zero in the way of new policies to transform 70% of the UK – its farmland. This is even more concerning the day after the Climate Change Committee revealed the failure to prepare the UK for climate change.

"Why is the government failing to implement the best solutions for reaching net zero? Farmers are on the front line dealing with increasingly volatile weather, and they hold so many answers through agroecological, nature-friendly farming like organic.

"A key solution is combining trees with crops and livestock in agroforestry. More trees on farms would capture carbon and provide a habitat for our depleted wildlife. They also boost farm resilience through shade, shelter and healthy soils that capture carbon and protect against floods and drought.

"Government must incentivise a farmer-led tree revolution and a whole-farm focus on restoring soil to absorb rather than release carbon, using the example already being set by agroecological and organic farmers across the country."

Further information:

• Government inaction on agriculture: As highlighted by the Green Alliance policy tracker, the government's ambition to date only takes them half way to successfully decarbonising food and farming, and the action being taken falls even further behind this. Only 9% of the emissions cuts needed in agriculture and land use currently have a clear policy framework for delivery. Government must urgently address the gap between policy and ambition – and that must include much stronger support for agroecological farming practices, such as organic and agroforestry.
  
  
• Soils leaking carbon: Soil contains more carbon than the atmosphere, yet the government's own data reveals that intensive agriculture has caused arable soils to lose about 40 to 60% of their organic carbon. But ministers have failed to deliver on the promised Soil Health Action Plan for England. Robust soil health targets with increased government support, including for peer-to-peer learning for nature-friendly farming, are urgently needed to save our soils and capture carbon. With 44% more soil carbon on organic farms, agroecological farming like organic must be prioritised.
  
  
• Farming with trees: a ground-breaking report, funded by the Woodland Trust, which showed how a major increase in agroforestry in England, is essential if the country is to meet nature and climate targets, whilst at the same time securing long term food production. The report was developed from new analysis commissioned from Cranfield University which revealed arable farms that integrate trees within arable crops – known as silvoarable systems – could lock up eight tonnes of CO2 per hectare per year over 30 years. Eight tonnes of CO2 is equivalent to the annual emissions of an UK citizen. Agroforestry is also 20–30% more productive than monoculture farming systems, as demonstrated by the Soil Association's Agroforestry Handbook.