Food security must top the bill in 2023, say farm leaders

Food security must become the top priority in 2023, as farmers grapple with soaring costs and global pressures undermine the reliability of imports.

That is the overriding message from the leaders of all the main farm unions in a series of new year messages, intended to deliver a warning to policymakers across all parts of the UK.

See also: Food security debate – balancing imports v self-sufficiency

NFU president Minette Batters said the events of the past year had made the job of producing food much harder throughout the world.

“The importance of British farming to deliver food and energy has never been clearer,” she said. “To do this we need to build profitability and resilience into our farm businesses, to allow us to safeguard the nation’s food and energy security.”

In particular, Mrs Batters called on prime minister Rishi Sunak to honour his pledge to support British farming by setting a target for the nation’s food security, with a statutory duty to report on domestic food levels.

“I am hopeful that 2023 will be the year that government gets serious about British food and farming,” she said.

High cost of cheap food

NFU Scotland president Martin Kennedy said one of the lessons from 2022 was that the UK had become too reliant on others to produce energy “because it is cheaper”.

“We must not repeat that with food,” he said. “We spend the lowest amount of our income on food of any country in Europe. When you are taking something as vital as food security for granted, no wonder we waste so much of it as a nation.”

Educating consumers and increasing the proportion of local food used by public bodies were part of the solution, but the real blame for the UK’s poor and declining self-sufficiency lay at the door of retailers and the inadequate returns made to primary producers.

This view was echoed by Farmers Union of Wales president Glyn Roberts, who likened the situation in the egg sector to “the canary in the coal mine”. Product shortages should serve as a vital warning, he said.

“In 2023, our politicians have the opportunity to reverse the trend of belittling the importance of UK food security and undermining the family farms that are the backbone of domestic food production.”

Mr Roberts was, however, relieved that the Welsh government seemed to be moving away from the English model of post-Brexit farm support, with more emphasis on family farms and food production.

“They now know that even a relatively mild pandemic can rapidly threaten supply chains, and that sudden extreme events, such as attacks on major food-producing countries, can lead to global shortages of essential commodities,” he said.

Import threats

Food security was also “top of mind” for Ulster Farmers’ Union president David Brown.

“The government needs to continue to take action to prevent a situation where British food is replaced by food imports – imports which could fall way below our own highly valued standards of animal health and welfare and environmental protection,” he said.

NFU Cymru president Aled Jones urged farmers to remember the plight of the Ukrainian people heading into 2023, noting that Ukraine was “a powerhouse in global food production” and that Russia’s invasion was having a “significant knock-on effect on global food supply”.

He stressed the need for the new Agriculture (Wales) Bill to “prioritise the production of high-quality, affordable food for all in society”. 

Slow progress

Meanwhile, TFA chairman Mark Coulman used his new year address to slam Defra’s lack of progress in delivering a new farm policy for England, it being five years since former Defra secretary Michael Gove launched his “Health and Harmony” consultation.

“It is unforgivable that next year all BPS recipients will have seen payments reduced by at least a third, with little chance of recovering that loss through new schemes,” he said.

“Our trade deals will do more harm than good, and there are moves afoot to pull back on the only effective tool in bringing fairness to food supply chains, the Groceries Code Adjudicator.”

A New Year message from Defra farm minister Mark Spencer

© UK Parliament

The past year has been a year like no other for the nation’s farmers.

Rising fertiliser costs as a result of the war in Ukraine, drought over summer and an unprecedented bird flu outbreak have all posed significant challenges.

The government has put in place measures to provide much-needed support on these issues, such as bringing forward BPS payments, relaxing the rules of agri-environment schemes to help deal with dry weather, and improving the bird flu compensation scheme.

As we look ahead to 2023, the government will be pressing ahead with our Environmental Land Management schemes – delivering sustainable food production at the same time as taking action to protect and enhance our environment.

The schemes are already up and running – with more than 30,000 farmers signed up to Countryside Stewardship and many joining the brand new Sustainable Farming Incentive as well.

We’ll be taking steps to improve them further, making sure they work for farmers and deliver for food security, the environment and rural economies.

So happy new year, and thank you to all my fellow farmers across the country who work so hard for their families, local communities and the nation.

We’ll be by your side in 2023, and doing all we can to help you make it a year to remember.