Positive commitments on future food security must now be actioned following this week’s Food Summit at 10 Downing Street, says the National Sheep Association (NSA).
Phil Stocker, the association’s chief executive, attended the event hosted by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and said it was a definite step in the right direction but added that it can not end with one meeting.
“After what has felt like years of farming only being talked about in terms of its environmental outcome and its carbon footprint resulting in endless criticism, the bringing together of farmers, farming organisations, processors, retailers and the hospitality sector to hear that the government is firmly on the side of the food producers was a step in the right direction,” said Mr Stocker.
“Recent government focus on farming has been almost entirely been on the environment but it must not and does not need to be an either/or. We have to deliver food and deliver for the environment in combination. It is often ignored that much of the UK’s wildlife is farming and livestock dependant anyway.”
There was a firm promise that future trade deals will protect agriculture’s sensitive sectors however, NSA questioned the timing of this statement when significant deals with New Zealand and Australia, which could negatively impact the UK sheep sector, have already been agreed.
With recent moves to depopulate much of the UK’s grazed landscape to be replaced with trees for carbon capture, Mr Stocker highlighted the forgotten benefits livestock farming brings to these areas.
“I managed to make the case that for much of our grassland to be looked at as less suitable for food production and more suited to trees and carbon (as it was in the Henry Dimbleby National Food Plan) misses the multi functionality of what farmers do,” he said.
“This has already distorted land prices and with widespread afforestation, we will see the breakdown of some fragile rural farming communities. The role of farming, for food production and the environment, in these areas should not be underestimated.
“We have to keep the momentum up and see food recognised as of equal importance to climate change, nature, and natural resources, after all, it is an essential of life without which we will not survive for long.”