Georgie Bray, Assistant Manager at the RSPB's Hope Farm shares her experience of joining with other nature-friendly farmers at an event in Westminster to show that Nature Means Business
Currently, the Ag Bill is being discussed amongst MP’s in the House of Commons, underlying one of the most changeable times in agricultural policy in the last half century. With discussions amongst MPs about the future of policy, comes opportunity to provide evidence, notes from experience, and support a future of sustainable farming that works with nature in the UK. The Nature Friendly Farming Network have seized the opportunity by the horns, knocking on the doors of Westminster to discuss a sustainable future for farming with an event on 31 October.
Image: Nature Friendly Farming Network
The Nature Friendly Farming Network (NFFN) is an organisation still in its infancy, but that certainly hasn’t hindered this group in getting their voice heard. The membership of a hundreds of farmers and members of the public all stand as a voice for farmers who want to keep nature core to the farming business, whilst supporting them as land managers and food producers. Throughout the progress in the Ag Bill, NFFN have been on the front line to support practical, achievable, and sustainable future policies.
The day started outside in Westminster, with plenty of interest from the press including national ITV news, broadcasting the farmers who are willing to fight for help to grow food and care for wildlife. Farmers are one of the core groups affected by any changes in the way that they must manage land to keep their businesses stable, so the MPs, Government, and members of the public need to hear what farmers themselves want from the Bill. Fundamentally, everybody is affected by this future policy, but it is these farmers who are to provide the fuel that keeps our country fed and watered without costing the land we live on.
Video courtesy of the Nature Friendly Farming Network
After a quick lunch, it was time to hear what Defra’s Gavin Ross could inform us on the Ag Bill discussions so far. It was useful above anything else for the NFFN’s farmers to get a direct response to their concerns and questions about any future environmental land management scheme. Receiving an update on the current process also primed everyone in the room for the discussions that followed.
MPs were invited into the parliamentary meeting for discussions that may help to inform proposed changes to the Bill in the coming months. Whilst the first draft has been made public already, it is very broad, and leaves many doors still open. All MPs who attended were engaged and keen to hear the farmers’ opinions. Having said that, it was hard not to be as the farmers were so good at using their personal experiences to share with the MPs and really explaining how nature can be at the heart of a farming business.
Farmers attending came from a broad spectrum, from Scotland, to the South West and everywhere in between. All supported sustainable and wildlife friendly farming, but with interesting and diverse opinions in how this could be achieved. Key themes that rippled through the room included a need for support and advice, freedom and trust to undertake good land management without unnecessary red tape and constriction that hinders innovation, support for local produce being fed to the local community, and a fair system that rewards the good players whilst using a stick for those with no intention of following the rules. Hopefully, this will have made a memorable afternoon for those in attendance, both farmers and politicians, to spur even more constructive progress with the policy in the coming weeks and months, based on shared experiences within this sector.
The Nature Friendly Farming Network is open to farmers, organisations and members of the public who wish to join - if you would like to lend your support, you can do so via the NFFN website.