The NFU president has written to the new Defra Secretary outlining the government's pledges to safeguard UK food production.
Minette Batters has reached out to Thérèse Coffey with an open letter [PDF], giving a stark overview of the challenges faced by the farming industry.
Farmers are continuing to feel the extreme effects of rising food and fuel prices, alongside global market volatility.
In the letter, Mrs Batters outlined the action needed on everything from UK food production to energy support in order to allow farmers to plan ahead.
She highlighted seven key pledges made by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak while he attended the NFU's hustings event during the summer.
These included commitments to establish a new food security target, including a statutory duty to monitor and report on domestic food production levels annually.
There was also a pledge from Mr Sunak to introduce a new target for public sector organisations to buy 50% of their food locally.
The letter goes on to highlight that the new prime minister had committed to use the powers in the Agriculture Act to ensure that supply chains are made fairer.
Mrs Batters concluded the letter by emphasising how "farming can offer solutions to many of the challenges we face as a nation."
"While we are ambitious to deliver, that ambition must be matched with certainty about the future," she said.
What are Rishi Sunak's seven pledges?
The prime minister attended a hustings at the NFU’s HQ in Warwickshire over the summer, where he made commitments to support domestic food production.
These included pledges to:
• Establish a new food security target, including a statutory duty to monitor and report on domestic food production levels annually
• Chair a UK-wide annual food security summit at 10 Downing Street, in partnership with the NFU and industry stakeholders
• Introduce a new target for public sector organisations to buy 50% of their food locally
• Use the powers in the Agriculture Act to ensure that supply chains are made fairer
• Review planning rules to ensure that high-quality farmland is sufficiently protected
• Make farmers a priority in all future trade deals…[and] build on existing support mechanisms to help farmers export to the world’s emerging markets
• Reintroduce the role of the UK Rural Advocate and increase representation of farmers at all levels of government
