A sustainable farming future
A personal blog on the future of farming from Andrew Christie, Agronomist and Agri-Tech Specialist
Last week I was delighted to accept an invitation to attend a lunch event at Westminster for the new Sustainable Farm Networks (SFN) initiative linked to Harper Adams and its School of Sustainable Food and Farming, hosted by Lord Curry of Kirkharle, who championed its establishment with the aim of realising the potential of the agricultural transition through the application of science.
The initiative brings together individuals and organisations from across UK food and farming working to accelerate the transition to more sustainable agricultural productivity. It builds upon a growing body of communication and networking focussed farmer cluster or hub projects, including those with Hutton involvement such as the European funded IPMWORKS and FRAMEWORK projects which brought together a nucleus of like-minded farmers to share experiences and work collaboratively toward a common goal, in this case focussing on promoting holistic integrated plant management strategies and biodiversity measurement, respectively. Existing networks such as these have formed throughout the UK providing a foundation for SFN to provide a four-nation grass-roots approach to network building, and create a direct link and forum for policy, research and supply chain with farmers at its heart.
As someone actively involved in the family farm, and participating in a career in agricultural research; I see both the potential of such wide collaboration and a particular need for strength in numbers at this moment in time, with farm sustainability being the focus whether that’s economic (financial/food security), environmental (biodiversity/landscape) or social (maintaining communities/traditions).
Through my role at The James Hutton Institute, I have led the formation of a network of farmers in the East of Scotland for the IPMWORKS project, promoting knowledge exchange on sustainable practices with a focus on peer to peer exchange and have been privileged to host and experience cross visits, meeting farmers from across Europe resulting in cross pollination of ideas with Irish, Italian, Dutch, German, Polish, Swiss and Spanish farmers. The knowledge exchanged was valuable at all levels of conversation. It is remarkable how we shared a common language through farming regardless of our poor grasp of foreign vernacular!
Discussions with these European farmers covered a broad and varied range of topics. For example, Ireland has similarities with Scotland, with aphid virus vectors on the rise across the emerald isle and similarities with England with herbicide resistant blackgrass also spreading – the latter I hope we never emulate. In Italy, Tuscany was a picturesque landscape challenged by social decline with farm abandonment on its poorer soils being a present danger and had experienced a major shift to organic farming prompted by their Italian ryegrass weed problem in durum wheat, with a return to ploughing as their main solution. In the Netherlands, the productive reclaimed land of the Flevopolder created its own challenges with exorbitantly high land prices (over €200k/ha), driven up by speculators and outside investment, and political pressure to resume land for house building and imposition of strict legislation for emissions targets.
Beyond a few differences, it was most striking how similar problems are for all of us in farming – price volatility, need for diversification, land use conflict and the difficulty of farm succession.
Pointedly, of the farmers visited during IPMWORKS cross visits, the majority stated that subsidy (in this case the Common Agricultural Policy) was not working for them and they forecast that they would be poorer in future, with less income from farming operations.
So why is this the case? It was designed to protect rural communities. In its original purpose, the CAP is a partnership between society and agriculture that ensures a stable supply of food, safeguards farmers’ income, protects the environment and keeps rural areas vibrant. How has it been deemed to have failed the very people it aimed to protect?
Something is fundamentally broken in farm economics. This is a universal problem.
Low profit margins, high risk investment, price volatility. It takes very little to break the system.
We saw a UK reaction in the protests at Whitehall and a Scottish delegation at Holyrood on Thursday last month with the planned changes to inheritance tax potentially making the farm unviable for next generation, as they will never be able to make that tax money back from farming, and thus, hindering the new entrant before they begin.
The protest was held in the name of the changes to APR (Agricultural Property Relief) and its effect on inheritance tax, but the reason it has become a live issue is due to the state in which agriculture finds itself.
Economic theory expressed as four factors of production – Land, Capital, Labour and Enterprise – sees that agriculture holds massive risk in terms Land and Capital employed, often devaluing their own Labour value below minimum wage (if taking a wage at all) in order to conduct a farming Enterprise which barely covers the cost of the land and capital – often with no profit at all without subsidy.
What do we as farmers provide in this model?
I believe that as farmers we provide the most fundamental public good, the basis for civilization, in ensuring provision of plentiful food, feed and fibre. Furthermore, as custodians of the land itself, farming plays a critical role in protecting and enhancing the natural environment on which we all (including farmers) depend. Finally, it is a way of life which helps maintains the vibrancy of rural areas and the fabric of our nation. All are valuable contributions to society.
The value of farming was greatly admired in the time of my institutions’ namesake, James Hutton, as the enlightenment milieu combined a peculiar blend of rational thought and empirical evidence in the name of progress during the 18th Century.
A contemporary of Hutton and significant public figure, Henry Home, Lord Kames, stated in his publication ‘The Gentleman Farmer’ that ‘Agriculture justly claims to be the chief of all arts’. In addressing the Royal Society of Edinburgh, he proclaimed: ‘your members cannot employ their talents more profitably for their country, or more honourably for themselves than in promoting and improving an art, to which Britain fundamentally is indebted for the figure it makes all the world over’
With the establishment of the Sustainable Farm Network, I see a collective that brings together the skills, expertise, drive and experience needed to promote and improve the art, and if I can maybe allow myself to get slightly carried away… heralds a new enlightened relationship between agriculture and wider society.
But in all this, our institutions, our networks, cannot exist without farmers. And thus the protests become more pertinent.
If an industry is based on flawed economics, it will fail. In showing value to society, it may be bailed out with public funds for a time – but to rely upon this is not a strong position. Something must change to address this.
The value of agricultural land no longer bears relation to the potential income from practising the art of farming upon it. It has become a financial instrument for protected investment, disconnected from its use.
A re-evaluation of the value of agriculture, the art form is required.
We need to calculate the true value of a nutritious food supply, natural fibres, energy crops and renewable industrial feedstocks for the supply chain as part of a Just Transition to Net Zero. An equilibrium must be sought between production and protection, ensuring our water catchments, biodiversity and carbon sequestration potential is well maintained in the process.
If we are to be taxed as any other industry, then we should first be competitive as a viable industry and at this point, we are not. So how can farming be made viable? We produce something others cannot yet hold no power over price or market. A conundrum indeed…
I do not have the answers, but in highlighting the problem it allows us to come together and work towards solutions. My one wish in all this, is that change favours the practitioners – the family farm, the tenant farmer, the generational estate – as we are all the custodians of the land, and all deserving of support for our contributions to society.
In doing so we continue to make British Farming a progressive figure to uphold across the world (with a nod to Hutton and Lord Kames) as an example of success in effective agriculture policy backed by reliable institutions providing sound scientific evidence – in consensus.
This last point is what the Sustainable Farm Networks initiative offers, and I have high hopes for the future endeavours of the network and look forward to working with all those collaborating in the initiative for maximum impact.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this blog post are the views of the author, and not an official position of the institute or funder.
