British farmers should not expect a future free from
regulation if they are going to properly tackle food security and
environmental challenges, theRSPBhas warned.
Speaking at the
Conservative party conference in Manchester last week (8
October), RSPB conservation director Mark Avery (above) said
sensible regulation was needed to create an agricultural industry
that was fit for the future.
And he said farmers could not expect to continue with "business
as usual" without more burdensome regulation being demanded by the
public.
"We are going to need a different idea of farming in future," he
told delegates at a
Crop
Protection Agency fringe event.
"It's fair enough that the public will expect to have some say
in the way you farm given you get your Single Farm Payment from
public money and some of the costs that agriculture imposes on the
public are ones we all bear."
Mr Avery said consumers paid £400m a year to remove nitrates
from water as a result of fertilisers being used on farmland.
"The public puts a lot of money into agriculture and pays for
external costs, so you are not going to farm in an unregulated
industry," he added. "But we need sensible regulation and we need a
clear regulatory framework to create an agriculture that's fit for
the future."
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| Jim Paice: Farmers must be trusted to behave
responsibly. |
Shadow farm minister Jim Paice said it was important farmers were
trusted to behave responsibly to produce as much food as possible
in an environmentally-sustainable way. "I want to create the
environment where farmers can farm by removing regulations and
trusting them to do what needs to be done."
Mr Paice said the EU believed Britain did not care about
agriculture, but it was possible to turn that view around by
farmers showing they were committed to producing food
responsibly.
The EU had brought in a raft of damaging regulations, such as
the electronic identification of sheep and the pesticides ban,
which only damaged farmers' ability to meet food demands, he added.
"The only way to address this is more engagement in Europe and we
are happy to work with Europe when it's needed."
What do you think about the food and environment debate?
Read other farmers' views in our food security forum on
FWi.