Farmers will soon have to do more to show they take account of their carbon footprint, consultant Simon Ward told delegates ‘at the AICC conference near Coventry last week.

Many big businesses were already doing so, such as Walkers, which had started to print the amount of CO2 produced on each bag of crisps. “Those closest to the market already have to show their carbon footprint, but it will become more and more important for farmers in the future. It’s an issue that’s not going to go away.”

It was very likely that carbon footprinting could become another management plan option within the Entry Level Scheme, and there was some suggestion that it could be made a requirement of cross compliance, he said.

“Climate change is moving up the CAP agenda under the current ‘health check’, so it’s possible it could come in under cross compliance. The government’s been caught out with management plans before, so it will probably wait for the CAP to get refined before deciding what to do.”

Mr Ward was involved with developing a new web-based calculator to help farmers and land managers work out their carbon footprint, launched at this year’s Oxford Farming Conference.