Toilet-trained cows, green interest rates, food security

Our weekly dose of news, views and insight from the world of farming, food and landownership

The dire headlines about the impact of the current surge in gas prices on supermarket shelves throw into sharp relief the fragile nature of modern food chains. Politicians need to be aware of this when creating policy. As an NFU report also points out focussing on the environment at the expense of food security could simply outsource food production to countries with lower environmental and welfare standards.

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Andrew Shirley, Head of Rural Research

In this week’s update:

• Commodity markets – Canadian OSR woes
• Food security – NFU challenges government
• Finance – Interest rates low for green investment
• Planning reform – Government reshuffle puts planning plans on hold
• Science and technology – Public backs gene editing, survey claims
• Supply chains – gas price hike starts to bite
• The Rural Report – Sign up to watch our ground-breaking video
• Overseas news – Toilet-training cows

Commodity markets – Canadian OSR woes

Oilseed rape is on the verge of breaking the 500p/tonne mark again after another price rise last week. The hike was driven by official data from Canada – the world’s largest OSR exporter – that this harvest crop could fall a whopping 35% to 12.8 million tonnes, well down on the estimated 14 million tonnes. This is expected to reduce Canada's exportable surplus from 10.6 million tonnes in 2020/21, to under four million tonnes in 2021/22.

Food security – NFU challenges government

A new report, British Food leading the way, issued last week by the NFU calls on the government to include food security, agri-food trade and competitiveness as part of Defra’s remit, which it says is largely focused on delivering environmental schemes. It points out that the UK’s self-sufficiency in food has slipped to 60% from a high of almost 80% in the mid-1980s. Other demands include that UK-produced food should be put at the heart of public procurement policy with assurances that the public sector does not provide a back door to food imports not produced to UK production standards.

Finance – Interest rates low for green investment

Some incredibly attractive interest rates are now available as lenders come under more pressure to help support sustainable projects, reports my colleague Rachel Barnett, an agri-lending specialist at Knight Frank Finance. “Two agri lenders are now offering a discount to their ‘standard’ interest rates for any sustainable projects and will also not charge any arrangement fees. I imagine more will follow,” points out Rachel. “As an example, a £3m loan to invest in renewable energy could now be as low as 1.4% with no fee,” she adds.

Planning reform – Government reshuffle puts planning plans on hold

Boris Johnson’s thorough shake up of his cabinet last week means the controversial reform of planning policy, which has been blamed for a recent Tory by-election loss in its Home Counties heartland, has been put on hold while the new Housing, Communities and Local Government Secretary Michael Gove gets to grips with his latest brief. CLA President Mark Bridgeman said: “We warmly welcome Mr Gove’s appointment, and hope he can bring some much-needed energy and ambition to the brief. The simple truth is that, while rural communities might get the attention of Defra, too often are they an afterthought for the rest of government.

For help with planning issues please contact Roland Brass

Science and technology – Public backs gene editing, survey claims

A YouGov survey of over 2,000 adults, carried out on behalf of the Agricultural Biotechnology Council, suggests the public wants farmers to have access to new precision breeding techniques such as gene-editing to respond better to climate change. It indicates rising concern about the environment following a summer of droughts and heat waves, including the hottest temperatures recorded in Europe since records began.

Supply chains – gas price hike starts to bite

Already under pressure from Covid-19 and Brexit, the UK’s food chains have been hit by another menace – rising gas prices. The sharp increases – wholesale prices are up 250% this year - have caused a number of fertiliser plants, which rely on natural gas to create artificial nitrogen-based fertilisers, to halt production. An obvious side effect is a potential hike in fertiliser prices for farmers, but equally concerning for many is a subsequent shortfall in global carbon dioxide stocks. The gas, which is used in abattoirs as part of the slaughtering process and in food packaging to increase shelf life, is produced as a by-product of fertiliser production.

The Rural Report – Sign up to watch our ground-breaking video

This year’s edition of The Rural Report, our unique publication for rural landowners and their advisors, launched last month with a video highlighting some of its key content around the topic of ESG. If you missed it, you can sign up to watch on demand at your leisure. It was a lot of fun making it and includes a thought provoking interview on diversity, with Wilfred Emmanuel-Jones AKA The Black Farmer. I think you’ll find it both entertaining and informative.

Sign up to watch The Rural Report launch video

Overseas news – Toilet-training cows

A German researcher claims that it is possible to train cows to use a special latrine when they need to urinate. According to an article I spotted in The Economist, Dr Jan Lanbein of the Fredrich-Loweffler-Institut persuaded his subjects to use the latrine 77% of the time in a bid to reduce nitrous oxide emissions that emanate from the urea contained in cow pee. The next step is to work on the number twos.

Photo by Andy Kelly on Unsplash