From the halls of Westminster comes the news that English farmers may finally be covered under a national agriculture policy that extends beyond the next harvest.
In what it described as “the most significant moment for English agriculture since the Second World War,” the currently-leaderless Labor government has prepared a 25-year farming plan to make the industry more profitable, productive, sustainable, and resilient.
Called Farming Roadmap 2050: Growing England’s Future, the plan has centered around rejoining farmers’ interests and suggestions in a way that balances existing environmental commitments around land management and conservation, as well as dramatically expanding the definition of agriculture by adding to the sector all work that comes as a direct result of agricultural production, for example English dairy and brewing made possible by English hops and milk.
This new measurement increases the recognized contribution in economic terms of the agriculture sector to 6.1% of the national economy, a 10-fold increase from the previous metric of 0.6%. Additionally, the new metric puts 1 in every 10 workers into the agriculture or “agri-food” sector, making it one of the largest employers in the country.
The Roadmap comes off the back of a review on profitability in English faming conducted by Baroness Minette Batters, a working farmer, president of the National Farmers’ Union of England and Wales from 2018 to 2024, and a current member of the British Parliament in the House of Lords.
The ‘Batters Review’ featured 57 recommendations, not one of which came from a politician, “including making farm reservoirs easier to build, improving access to finance and tackling the shortages of workers to harvest salads and berries,” The Times reported.
There is a doubling of government investment into agriculture innovation like soil health monitoring, nutrient cycling, climate resilience, and robotics. In total, the Roadmap adopted 53 of the 57 recommendations.
Emma Reynolds, the current Environmental Minister, spoke with the Times about the Roadmap and the value it will return to English farming.
“That [0.6 per cent figure] massively underplays and underestimates the value of farming. I think it’s completely inaccurate and has led some people to underestimating the value of the sector.”
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“Of course farming doesn’t stop at the farm gate. We should look at agri-food in the whole. And the agri-food sector is massive. It’s got the economic value that’s equivalent to the automotive sector or the construction sector.”
Other benefits included in the farming overhaul will be promises to work to cut trade friction with the EU, combining multiple government service and regulatory accounts into a single platform for ease of use, launching a $39 million fund for supporting small producer expansions, and extending the current visa program for seasonal harvest workers until 2030.
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“I have spent every day in this role rebuilding our relationship with farmers brick by brick because they’re such an important part of our economy, our society, and our environment,” Minister Reynolds said in a statement. “We are looking at how farming is valued economically and socially to ensure it receives the recognition it deserves.”
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