Over 300 farmers have contacted their MPs demanding the full rollout of key environmental reforms, such as enhancing wildlife, reducing greenhouse emissions and promoting nature conservation.
A new letter by the Nature Friendly Farming Network (NFFN), sent to 148 Tory MPs, says farmers were "promised agricultural policies that would make our farms the standard bearers for quality, sustainability, and profitability”.
Last month, Liz Truss announced a review of the Environmental Land Management Scheme (ELMS), a new set of subsidies set to replace the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy.
The key Brexit promise has been in development for six years, but fears are growing it could be watered down by Truss and the new Defra Secretary Ranil Jayawardana.
It is thought the new government sees environmental stewardship at odds with Truss's dash for growth.
But in the letter, coordinated by the NFFN, farmers say that this is a “false trade-off”, adding that weakening environmental incentives would be “a poor use of public funds and wholly against the direction of travel within the sector”.
The letter is set to add pressure on Truss and her cabinet to continue rolling out the new farm payments scheme, which seeks to put food production and environmental delivery hand in hand.
Last week saw the prime minister criticised publicly over these proposals by senior Tory figures including Michael Gove and William Hague, as well as the Conservative Environment Network (CEN), whose director Sam Hall described ELMS as “critical for both food security and farm profitability”.
Meanwhile, Business Secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg appeared to contradict the prime minister over her plans to ban solar panels from most English farmland.
The move to review environmental commitments to farming coincides with a new report from the NFFN, which argues that if the government wants to prioritise food security, then nature and climate-based reforms are of importance.
“Rethink Food” shows that the war in Ukraine, the Covid pandemic, and Brexit-related labour shortages have exposed the fragilities of farming, and that in order to build a resilient sector, farmers must be encouraged to work with nature.
Among the policy recommendations from the report is that the government must “move at pace to phase out the Common Agricultural Policy” and replace it with the initiatives Truss and Jayawardena are 'threatening to dilute'.
Martin Lines, UK chair of the NFFN said: “Farmers urgently need a clear vision for the future and the right policies and political will to get us there—we need ELMS to work for all farms of every size and system.
“There is already much evidence showing how nature-friendly farming provides greater profitability, resilience and the foundations to build sustainable enterprises.
"It’s time the government stood by its commitment in 2019 and joined the solutions to achieving a multifunctional landscape that produces food, recovers biodiversity and delivers ambitious climate action."
Gareth Morgan, head of farming at the Soil Association, urged clarity from the government on the future of post-Brexit environmental schemes.
“Farmers know that healthy soils and a thriving natural environment are good for business; they help create resilient, reliable and productive farms.
“ELMS is an important component in the transformation needed in farming and we are working closely with NFFN to find practical ways to accelerate the transition to an agroecological food and farming system.”
