Profitability is key to farm resilience, says BFU

Climate change may be making farming harder, but the industry’s biggest problem is a lack of profit, according to the British Farming Union (BFU).

Responding to a Channel 4 News report on farmers’ mental health, the BFU said the debate risks focusing on weather-related pressures while ignoring the financial realities that leave many farms unable to withstand them.

The report featured south Wales dairy farmer and NFU Cymru president Abi Reader, who described climate change as “mentally destroying” farmers.

See also: Government policy undermining UK food resilience, warns IGD

The BFU said farmers’ experiences of extreme weather and its impact on wellbeing should be taken seriously, but argued that climate pressures are exposing deeper economic weaknesses across British agriculture.

“Farmers have always dealt with droughts, floods, cold winters, heatwaves, disease and poor harvests. Weather risk is not new,” said BFU chairman George Brown. “What has changed is the financial resilience of many farming businesses.”

It argued that profitability is critical to a farm’s ability to cope with difficult seasons and invest in measures that improve resilience.

“The uncomfortable truth is that the greatest challenge facing farming is not climate change. It is profitability, or more accurately, the lack of it,” Mr Brown said.

Government figures show 21% of farms across Great Britain failed to make a positive Farm Business Income in 2024-25.

The BFU said farms generating sustainable returns were better placed to withstand poor years and invest in drainage, water storage, buildings, technology and machinery.

The BFU also cited the 2025 Farming Profitability Review, which identified rising fixed costs, wages and machinery expenses, policy uncertainty and the financial pressures of environmental requirements.

Risk-reward imbalance

The union said farmers want to run thriving businesses and earn a fair return, while warning that risks and rewards remain unevenly distributed across the food supply chain.

It also rejected suggestions that weak demand is the problem. Food remains essential, Mr Brown said, arguing that the issue is “the price at which that demand is being met” and who carries the cost and risk of production.

The BFU noted that UK imports of food, feed and drink reached £67.8bn in 2025, against exports of £25.7bn, and called for agricultural policy, regulation and trade agreements that keep domestic food production viable.