Janet Hughes DEFRA Missing in action?

Looking at her profile, she’s logging in to look but not post, with the last couple of posts she made (1/4/22) indicating that Janet was suffering from Covid.
@Janet Hughes Defra We hope you are OK. Maybe you could just give us a hint of the reason you have gone to ground. The farming community deserve answers as there are three things in life everybody needs, Food, Water and Warmth. The first is essential and by the looks of the above is running into a problem. Please at least reply to one of the threads if your masters! will let you.
WB
Morning, really sorry to have not been around, you're right I did have covid and took longer than I hoped to recover (I'm much better now), and then had a couple of weeks off - I'm back and have been busier than normal catching up with everything I missed - I'll make sure I go through all your messages on here this week and will be back a few times a week again from now on
 
in fairness to @Janet Hughes Defra , she did contribute considerably to some threads in the New Year and leading into April.
However, it does seem strange that things have gone so quiet from DEFRA regarding the SFI .
You are right, we do need updates, above all just to confirm that the SFI/ELMS is still a cornerstone of DEFRA policy.
Secondly, we would like confirmation that our voices have been listened to please. (both on here and in the co-design projects,)
Morning, sorry to have missed you, I was off with covid and have been playing catch-up the last couple of weeks; it's also been the pre-election period where we're not allowed to do public comms about policy, which is why we've not said a lot about SFI in the last few weeks. I should have explained all that so you weren't left wondering where I was - sorry about that.

There will be more coming out on that this month and we're on track to open it for applications next month as planned, and we have very much listened to feedback on here, through the pilot and co-design as I hope you'll see when we open the scheme for applications.

Apologies again for going quiet without enough explanation - I'll be sure to go through the messages I've missed this week and will be back on here a few times a week as normal from now on.
 

Sid

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
South Molton
Morning, sorry to have missed you, I was off with covid and have been playing catch-up the last couple of weeks; it's also been the pre-election period where we're not allowed to do public comms about policy, which is why we've not said a lot about SFI in the last few weeks. I should have explained all that so you weren't left wondering where I was - sorry about that.

There will be more coming out on that this month and we're on track to open it for applications next month as planned, and we have very much listened to feedback on here, through the pilot and co-design as I hope you'll see when we open the scheme for applications.

Apologies again for going quiet without enough explanation - I'll be sure to go through the messages I've missed this week and will be back on here a few times a week as normal from now on.

Purdah

Been caught twice when part way through projects.
 

holwellcourtfarm

Member
Livestock Farmer
Morning, really sorry to have not been around, you're right I did have covid and took longer than I hoped to recover (I'm much better now), and then had a couple of weeks off - I'm back and have been busier than normal catching up with everything I missed - I'll make sure I go through all your messages on here this week and will be back a few times a week again from now on
I hope you are feeling fully recovered now Janet.
 
Assurances that a simple question about the numbers participating in the SFI pilot will be answered early next month have been given every month since early January.
Have I missed the blog post promised by the end of March revealing just how many signed up for the SFI pilot?
@Janet Hughes Defra
Since I received an email this morning from GOV.UK blogs probably not.
Funny how even self imposed deadlines dont seem to matter to DEFRA.
Sorry about that, I was off sick at the end of March and I'm afraid I dropped the ball on this - thanks for the prompt, we'll get a blogpost out on this asap, meanwhile the answer is that we have 872 agreements now live
 
I hope you are feeling fully recovered now Janet.
I'm much better now thanks, though I still don't quite have my full energy back (hence taking a while to catch up with everything I missed while off) - lots of people have said it takes a while though and I'm definitely getting better all the time, so overall I'm counting myself very lucky to have been jabbed and not to have had it more seriously as many others have.
 
Purdah

Been caught twice when part way through projects.
Yes - we've had this twice in the last couple of years, I can completely see why the rules are there but it's frustrating all the same when you really want / need to be out and about communicating with people and keeping things moving!

Anyway, there's no reason why anyone on here should know about this, I would normally let people know but in the fog of covid I didn't think to flag on here, which I should have done - really sorry about that!
 

steveR

Member
Mixed Farmer
Janet . Pleased to hear your back and on the mend. All we now need to know is whether everything that was on the green agenda of rewilding is ditched and DEFRA are now on a war footing with a modern "Dig for UK" focussing on UK agricultural production of FOOD and ENERGY. If not why not.
That will be a "Political Decision", is I suspect the answer you will be getting....
 

renewablejohn

Member
Location
lancs
That will be a "Political Decision", is I suspect the answer you will be getting....
But that political decision should already have been made and despatched to DEFRA to implement. It has already happened in electric generation with the UK exporting the maximum electric power to Europe over all the interconnectors (Approx 5GW) which out of a UK demand of 35GW is a substantial amount.
 

onesiedale

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Derbyshire
@Janet Hughes Defra
any updates please? with the SFI due to roll out next month please. Just wondering if DEFRA have considered the proposal put forward;

that an easy and fair quick fix to get the SFI off the ground payment of £200/ha could be made on the first 80 hectares of grassland.

Simple admin, simple verification, AND it ticks ALL of the environmental boxes for water quality, air quality, soil structure, carbon sequestration, public good and large participation

(I trust that this proposal has been discussed since it was first proposed late last year)
@Janet Hughes Defra
just incase you missed it, see above ^^
 
Janet . Pleased to hear your back and on the mend. All we now need to know is whether everything that was on the green agenda of rewilding is ditched and DEFRA are now on a war footing with a modern "Dig for UK" focussing on UK agricultural production of FOOD and ENERGY. If not why not.
@steveR is right that the overall strategy is set by government and I'm not able to get into political debates, but I'm happy to explain where we are.

The overall direction remains the same in that we're aiming to support / invest in environment and climate outcomes alongside profitable food production, but we're looking at ways to support the sector through the current set of issues and uncertainties, have introduced some measures already and are keeping the situation under active review.

Government has announced a range of measures in response to the current situation and we're continuing to keep the situation under review and consider a range of options. The things announced so are include: bringing this year's BPS payments forward to help with farm business cashflow given high input prices; bringing together an industry group to look at other ways we can support farming and food production through this period; delaying changes to the rules on urea; clarifying the rules on farming rules for water to make sure they work for farmers. As I say, this is a situation we're keeping under active review along with farmers and other experts.

The schemes we are offering are overwhelmingly about both food production and environmental and climate outcomes going hand in hand, not taking productive land out of production or choosing between the two - the sustainable farming incentive that will be available shortly, for example, will pay you to do actions in the course of producing food, and local nature recovery will include paying you for things you can do to generate an income from schemes on less productive areas on your farm (as many farmers already do through countryside stewardship).
 
@steveR is right that the overall strategy is set by government and I'm not able to get into political debates, but I'm happy to explain where we are.

The overall direction remains the same in that we're aiming to support / invest in environment and climate outcomes alongside profitable food production, but we're looking at ways to support the sector through the current set of issues and uncertainties, have introduced some measures already and are keeping the situation under active review.

Government has announced a range of measures in response to the current situation and we're continuing to keep the situation under review and consider a range of options. The things announced so are include: bringing this year's BPS payments forward to help with farm business cashflow given high input prices; bringing together an industry group to look at other ways we can support farming and food production through this period; delaying changes to the rules on urea; clarifying the rules on farming rules for water to make sure they work for farmers. As I say, this is a situation we're keeping under active review along with farmers and other experts.

The schemes we are offering are overwhelmingly about both food production and environmental and climate outcomes going hand in hand, not taking productive land out of production or choosing between the two - the sustainable farming incentive that will be available shortly, for example, will pay you to do actions in the course of producing food, and local nature recovery will include paying you for things you can do to generate an income from schemes on less productive areas on your farm (as many farmers already do through countryside stewardship).
i think given the circumstances the government seriously needs to up its game in terms of attitude to food first to stop people across the world dieing of starvation, for every tonne of grain a rich country like us now imports a poorer country is loosing out on and people are starving to death, its a life and death situation now im afraid, we cant have big chunks of the country sitting in wild flowers when this is going on???????
 

Jimdog1

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Devon
i think given the circumstances the government seriously needs to up its game in terms of attitude to food first to stop people across the world dieing of starvation, for every tonne of grain a rich country like us now imports a poorer country is loosing out on and people are starving to death, its a life and death situation now im afraid, we cant have big chunks of the country sitting in wild flowers when this is going on???????
How are the Scottish government addressing this?
 

JP1

Member
Livestock Farmer
Today at The Pig & Poultry Fair I met various policy people from DEFRA

It was very useful to meet directly with folks I have been in dialogue with regarding welfare in transit , pig loose farrowing and food labelling

I mentioned @Janet Hughes Defra and , without breaching any confidences , I understand it is health related and explains why Janet has not been able to respond recently

So please could folks cut a little slack and as Janet is tagged in this; from me personally and on behalf of other TFFers I want to wish Janet a full and speedy recovery
 

steveR

Member
Mixed Farmer
Today at The Pig & Poultry Fair I met various policy people from DEFRA

It was very useful to meet directly with folks I have been in dialogue with regarding welfare in transit , pig loose farrowing and food labelling

I mentioned @Janet Hughes Defra and , without breaching any confidences , I understand it is health related and explains why Janet has not been able to respond recently

So please could folks cut a little slack and as Janet is tagged in this; from me personally and on behalf of other TFFers I want to wish Janet a full and speedy recovery
As we all do...
 

Humble Village Farmer

Member
BASE UK Member
Location
Essex
i think given the circumstances the government seriously needs to up its game in terms of attitude to food first to stop people across the world dieing of starvation, for every tonne of grain a rich country like us now imports a poorer country is loosing out on and people are starving to death, its a life and death situation now im afraid, we cant have big chunks of the country sitting in wild flowers when this is going on???????
Interested to hear what you think government can do which farmers can't, to ease the problems you are forecasting?

Do you want to produce as much as possible at all costs and for DEFRA or the DWP to pay all your bills? Do you want them to buy loads of reserves on the international market?

Or just cancel the SFI because you don't like it (to be replaced by something you do like) or would you like it, but only if they paid you more for doing it?
 
@Janet Hughes Defra
just incase you missed it, see above ^^
Hi there, yes I recall you posting it before - we're going to be making payments for unimproved grassland through SFI, we're working now on what that will look like taking on board feedback from the pilot, farmers (including on here) and other experts - we will look suggestion as part of this work and I'll keep you posted
 
Today at The Pig & Poultry Fair I met various policy people from DEFRA

It was very useful to meet directly with folks I have been in dialogue with regarding welfare in transit , pig loose farrowing and food labelling

I mentioned @Janet Hughes Defra and , without breaching any confidences , I understand it is health related and explains why Janet has not been able to respond recently

So please could folks cut a little slack and as Janet is tagged in this; from me personally and on behalf of other TFFers I want to wish Janet a full and speedy recovery
That was very kind of you, thank you :) I'm much better now and I'll be back here a few times a week as normal from now on.

I wouldn't like anyone to worry - I wasn't seriously ill or anything but Covid did take me out of action for a few weeks; I then had a holiday and then came back in a pre-election period, when I'm not allowed to do as much public communications. So it's been one of those periods where you have one thing after another I'm afraid and it's taken me a little while to catch up after all of that. But I'm back on top now and looking forward to keeping in touch with you all as normal! :)
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 76 43.4%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 62 35.4%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 28 16.0%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.7%
  • 75-100%

    Votes: 3 1.7%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 3 1.7%

Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

  • 1,284
  • 1
As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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