Barn conversions, Food strategy, Cow burps

If the government was hoping to get back on the front foot with the publication of its new food strategy today (Monday 13 June) it failed. Leaked versions of the document found their way into the national press over the weekend and the response from many organisations including the NFU, as detailed below, was highly critical. Given the highly ambitious aims of the strategy, which promised an overhaul of the country’s entire food chain from farm to fork with a strong emphasis on dietary health reducing food poverty and protecting the environment, it is perhaps unsurprising that it failed to keep everybody happy. Hopefully, the positive elements of the strategy won’t be overlooked in the rush to lambast it.

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Andrew Shirley, Head of Rural Research

In this week’s update:

• Commodity markets – Grains weaken, pig plight
• Barn conversions – Boris moots easier planning laws
• The Rural Report 2022 – Out now
• National Food Strategy – Government response lambasted
• Landscape Recovery Scheme – Budget slashed
• Overseas news – New Zealand to tax cow burps

Commodity markets – Grains weaken, pig plight

Wheat and oilseed markets saw prices slide last week as some traders sold out their positions followed renewed – albeit highly speculative – optimism that grain shipments from Ukraine’s Black Sea ports will resume. There are still significant practical barriers to this, not least the mines laid by both Ukraine and Russia, so markets will remain volatile. Meanwhile, pork prices continue to increase, rising above 180p/kg this week. However, the AHDB estimates production costs have hit 240p/kg.

Barn conversions – Boris moots easier planning laws

In his first speech since surviving a vote of no confidence by his MPs, Boris Johnson last week revealed a raft of proposals to help level up the UK’s housing market.

Among the proposals, the Prime Minister said he wanted to “sensitively make use of existing planning rights” to “make it easier to turn disused agricultural buildings into homes for local first-time buyers, and to support farmers in growing and diversifying their businesses”.

He also wants to “put more publicly owned brownfield land to use and seek to unlock small sites, with priority for first-time buyers and key workers”.

Further details on how the PM’s aspirations will be achieved will be awaited with interest, but Tom Stanley, a rural planning expert at Knight Frank, says the current permitted development rights that allow farmers to convert barns into homes under certain circumstances could be tweaked.

“Options could be the removal of the maximum square metre threshold, maximum unit number threshold, or even the Article 1(5) land restriction that applies in the likes of National Parks.”

The Rural Report 2022 – Out now

The 2022 edition of The Rural Report, which focuses on the three Ps – People, Planet and Profit - is out now and is packed full of useful information and thought-provoking articles for anybody who has an interest in agriculture and rural property. These include an interview with

Jake Fiennes, the innovative Head of Conservation at the Holkham Estate, and some thoughts on the future of farming and estate ownership from James Farrell our new Head of Rural Consultancy, not to mention lots of fascinating client case studies. Download your copy and sign up for our launch webinar here. 

National Food Strategy – Government response lambasted

The government’s long-awaited national food strategy white paper has been widely criticised. It was produced in response to the recommendations contained in the National Food Strategy document written by Henry Dimbleby and commissioned in 2019 by former Defra minister Michael Gove.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said: “Our Food Strategy sets out a blueprint for how we will back farmers, boost British industry and help protect people against the impacts of future economic shocks by safeguarding our food security.

“Harnessing new technologies and innovation, we will grow and eat more of our own food - unlocking jobs across the country and growing the economy, which in turn will ultimately help to reduce pressure on prices.”

Given the scope of Mr Dimbleby’s proposals, which aimed to create a healthier population, reduce food poverty, help farmers and boost biodiversity by revolutionising the UK’s entire food chain, the government’s response was always going to fall short, but the response seems particularly harsh.

The NFU said ministers had “stripped to the bone” proposals from the Dimbleby review. These included guaranteeing support for farmers until 2029 to help manage the post-Brexit transition away from the Common Agricultural policy.

Farming group Sustain, said: “In the face of multiple crises….the government food strategy looks shamefully weak … this isn’t a strategy, it’s a feeble to-do list, that may or may not get ticked.”

The Food Foundation called the paper “disappointing” and “feeble” – saying it “misses this mark” as many of its commitments will “flounder without new legislation to make them stick”.

Mr Dimbleby said the policy document was not detailed enough to be called a strategy.

He told the BBC: "They've now implemented more than 50% of what I recommended, but it hasn't been done with one vision across the whole system."

Landscape Recovery Scheme – Budget slashed

As well as criticism of its food strategy paper, the government is also taking flak for apparently cutting the amount of money allocated to its Landscape Recovery Scheme (LRS).

LRS, which is the upper tier of Defra’s new Environmental Land Management Scheme, was due to receive about £800 million, or a third, of the scheme’s annual funding. This has been slashed to £50 million, according to press reports.

The move coincides with an increasing focus on food security and productivity in light of the impact on food prices of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Overseas news – New Zealand to tax cow burps

New Zealand is set to be the first country in the world to tax greenhouse gas emissions from livestock. Almost half the country's total greenhouse gas emissions come from agriculture, mainly methane, but agricultural emissions have previously not been included in New Zealand's emissions trading scheme.

Details have yet to be released, but under the proposals farmers will have to pay for their gas emissions from 2025. There will also be incentives for farmers who reduce emissions through feed additives, while planting trees on farms could be used to offset emissions.

A new book, however, claims the impact of farming on climate change has been overstated. In The Great Plant-Based Con author Jayne Buxton says, at most, 14.5% of global emissions come from livestock and just 6% in the UK. Campaigners often quote the 51% figure used in the Netflix documentary Cowspiracy.

Photo by K. Mitch Hodge on Unsplash