Farmers for Action (FFA) is calling for an immediate halt to the development of solar farms on arable land in Northern Ireland.
William Taylor, spokesperson for the organisation, believes that such developments “are taking out significant areas of top quality arable land, which could be used for food production purposes”.
He also claimed that “the same principle holds where many new forestry developments are concerned”.
“The UK government has flagged up its commitment to enhanced levels of spending on defence, but underpinning all of this is the need to improve levels of food security across the UK,” he said.
Taylor believes the continuing investment in solar farms and private forestry on arable land “represents a corporate land grab”.
FFA
FFA is also highlighting the role that production agriculture will play in allowing society as a whole meets its energy requirements into the future on a sustainable basis.
Taylor pointed to the production of aviation fuel from crop sources. “Airlines could be running on bio-fuel by the end of this year,” he said.
“FFA has already crunched the numbers: if we switch all the sugar cane and sugar beet grown across the world currently into ethanol – the world-wide aviation fuel problem is solved virtually overnight.
“However, such an approach as this will not put the price of food up,” Taylor added.
Underpinning all of this from an FFA perspective is the need to deliver sustainable farm gate prices.
Taylor said that in this context the organisation’s proposed Farm Welfare Bill can play a key role.
The proposed legislation seeks to secure guaranteed prices for farmers that cover all costs of production.
An additional margin would also be built into the returns on offer, which would then allows primary producers to invest in the future of their businesses.
“The Farm Welfare Bill can be implemented by the Stormont Executive at zero cost.
“We have seen fast escalating egg and potato rise prices increases take effect over recent months: way above the market returns that are envisaged within the farm welfare bill model,” Taylor said.
“This is a direct result of Westminster’s cheap food policy. Egg and poultry farmers found themselves with no option but to walk away from their business in very significant numbers.
“The end result is dramatic shortages in these basic food commodities and the market responses this has generated,” he added.
