The 2023 National Farmers’ Union (NFU) conference saw discussions surrounding food security, headed by the union’s president Minette Batters, insights into farming realities and hardships, as well as government initiatives and funding to help the sector.

The union’s conference, titled and themed ‘Feeding a Changing World’, kicked off yesterday (Tuesday, February 21) and resumed today (Wednesday, February 22) in the ICC in Birmingham.

Relevant to this theme, the NFU also launched its resilience plans for each sector at the event, which are detailed on its website.

Speakers at the conference included, as mentioned, the union’s president, as well as Farming Minister Mark Spencer; Environment Secretary Thérèse Coffey; Labour Party leader Kier Starmer; and experts from each farming sector.

‘Uncertain future’

Speaking at the annual National Farmers’ Union conference, Batters said all farming sectors are struggling with “uncertainty and instability” while trying to achieve food security.

Batters said that “labour shortages and soaring energy prices” are hitting the poultry, horticulture and pig industries, while other sectors face an “uncertain future” as direct payments are phased out.

The NFU president said avian influenza (bird flu) as well as the struggles of the other sectors are happening against a backdrop of “huge cost inflation”.

Speaking on inflation figures, she said the impacts of high fertiliser, energy and animal feed prices will be felt far beyond farming.

“They will be felt across the natural environment, and in struggling households across the country,” she said.

Egg production, she said, has fallen to its lowest level in nine years, meaning nearly a billion fewer eggs were produced in 2022 compared to 2019.

“Our own survey of livestock producers has found that 40% of beef farmers and 36% of sheep farmers are planning to reduce numbers in the next 12 months, with input costs cited overwhelmingly as the main reason,” she said.

Food security

As part of the food security journey, Batters said, British farmers need to “recognised and valued, first and foremost, as food producers”.

“Food security is not the same as self-sufficiency – we will always rely on imports to some degree, and it is sensible to ensure diversity of supply.

“But food security also means ensuring our food is safe to eat, that it can be distributed efficiently, and that it remains affordable. All of which points to prioritising domestic production.

“The rhetoric of successive governments that ‘we are a wealthy country… we can just import our food’ must be exposed as naïve in the extreme in a rapidly changing and challenging world,” she said.

Funding for farmers

Speaking at the National Farmers’ Union conference, Farming Minister Mark Spencer acknowledged that the role farmers play is “crucial”.

“We know that sustainable food production depends on a healthy environment, the two go hand in hand,” he said.

“Helping farms invest in new technology as well as bringing in nature-friendly schemes will support the future of farming.”  

On that note he announced that more than £168 million will be available to farmers through 16 different grants and competitions around research and innovation this year.

The aim of the grants is to drive the development of new technology and innovative ways of farming, with a focus on practical solutions that advance food productivity, deliver environmental benefits and animal welfare benefits.

Reactions

Also speaking at the conference on behalf of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) was Environment Secretary Thérèse Coffey, who spoke of the role of farmers in society, calling them “the original friends of the earth”.

The politician reiterated Batters’ earlier message of uncertainty and instability.

Thérèse Coffey

“We are meeting at a time when we are all still feeling the economic aftershocks of Covid-19,” she said.

“With global supply chains still recovering, and exacerbated by the fallout from Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine, one of the most important agricultural countries in the world, having an impact on everything from the costs of inputs to the price of food – impacts that are causing sleepless nights for families across the country, for many of you, and indeed right around the world.

However, Coffey’s input to the conference may not have been received well received by all, with reports that she was booed by some attendees.

Opposition at the conference

Political opposition leader Keir Starmer also spoke at the event. He stated that the next Labour government would commit to national food resilience, rural services and locally produced food.

“50% of all food purhcased by the public sector will be food produced locally and sustainably,” he told attendees at the conference.

“That is £1.2 billion of public money spent on quality food that is genuinely better for peoples’ health. And 50% is just the minimum. We will do everything to go beyond it.

“We’re committed to reforming public procurement. And seasonal, sustainable, British-grown food is a key part of it.”

He also said his party would “remove barriers to exporters”, reform countryside public services and crackdown on antisocial behaviour.

President of the Country Land and Business Assocition (CLA), Mark Tufnell, said Starmer’s speech detailing the Labour Party’s pitch for the farming vote was only “superficially attractive”.

Tufnell said farmers would be happy to hear about Starmer’s attitudes towards boosting exports, upholding standards in future trade deals and tackling rural crime, but that without making a commitment to the long-term funding of Environmental Land Management schemes (ELMs), it is “difficult to see any concrete deliverables as yet”.

“85% of businesses in the countryside are not engaged in farming or forestry. The rural economy as a whole is 19% less productive than the national average. Closing this gap would add £43 billion to UK GVA,” he said.

“Labour needs a laser-like focus on understanding the causes of this productivity gap, and it must work together with the industry to develop policies designed to close it.”

Tufnell said the rural economy has “extraordinary potential” but that it needs and deserves a government that will “share the ambition of rural businesses and communities”.

“Labour is making the right noises, but as with all other political parties, it is still some way off a meaningful economic strategy for the countryside,” he said.

The conference, which wraps up today, will be followed the union’s annual general meeting.

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