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Defra fears lack of trust will undermine ELMs uptake
News21 Jun 2022Jez FredenburghA senior Defra employee has said he is concerned that farmers do not trust the Government department enough to fully engage with ELMS.
Jez Fredenburgh
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Defra fears lack of trust will undermine ELMs uptake
“The big challenge is that farmers do not have trust in us at the moment,” said Jonathan Baker, deputy director of programme, policy and engagement strategy in the Future Farming and Countryside Programme at Defra.
“Therefore, they will not engage with the [new environmental] schemes – that is what I am most worried about.”
Mixed Cotswolds farmer focusing on regenerative practices, Henry Astor, replied; “And we will not [engage] unless schemes allow us to be profitable. Currently, if we are just breaking even we are doing well. But we are taking all the risk for big corporations.”
Mr Baker and Mr Astor were speaking during a heated panel discussion at the Sustainable Food Conference last week, that saw farmers show anger and frustration with Defra and a representative from the Scottish Government.
Mr Baker added he wanted the scheme to be clear so ‘we do not come along years later and see you have done something wrong’.
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He said payment rates would need to be reviewed and he had been told that sustainable farming incentives would not have much uptake because the price of wheat was currently so high.
Iain Hill Trevor, an organic dairy farmer in Wales, and chair of CLA Cymru, pointed out that ‘farming support is food support’, but is currently mostly passed on to retailers.
Many audience members also expressed frustration at the Government’s lack of joined-up thinking on how to achieve a sustainable, healthy and affordable food system, that also worked for farmers.
John Gilliland, director of sustainability at Devenish and former president of the Ulster Farmers Union, said: “For decades we have had a reactive approach, and we have just missed a huge opportunity with the National Food Strategy (NFS) to achieve sustainable food and health. When will Government learn to do this across sectors?”
CLA president, Mark Tufnell, said he had spoken to Defra minister Victoria Prentis recently, and she had said parts of the NFS would be taken up by the Department of Health.
“But we will have to wait and see whether this is all forgotten,” said Mr Tufnell.
Defra fears lack of trust will undermine ELMs uptake
A senior Defra employee has said he is concerned that farmers do not trust the Government department enough to fully engage with ELMS.
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