The head of the National Farmers’ Union has warned food security risks becoming a “poor relation” to other national priorities, as the prime minister today promises its members the government will stick “by their side”.
Speaking before the annual NFU conference begins on Tuesday, the organisation’s chief Minette Batters said food production is increasingly having to compete for land and resources with homes, tree planting and climate plans.
“If we don’t take food production seriously… we will lose those farm businesses,” she told Sky News, with the number of agricultural businesses falling by 7,000 since 2019.
Ms Batters urged whoever forms the next government to “treat it as one vital part of our national infrastructure. Don’t make it the poor relation”.
The NFU wants the government to introduce targets for the amount of food that is produced in the UK, as it has for tree-planting and house-building.
Rishi Sunak will on Tuesday be the first prime minister to attend the annual conference since Gordon Brown in 2008, as he seeks to win back the waning rural vote in the run-up to the general election.
Mr Sunak is expected to say: “While the importance of farmers will never change – farming is going through its biggest change in a generation. And as farmers do so, this government will be by their side.”
He will tell farmers his government would “never take our food security for granted”.
Support for the Tories is slipping away in rural seats, according to a Survation survey, with communities there angry about the fallout from Brexit, flooding and the sewage water pollution scandal.
The NFU represents about one third (47,000) of agricultural businesses in England and Wales, but is a well-organised and influential lobby group.
In his speech, the PM will announce pots of cash to help farmers, coming from the existing £2.4bn annual farming budget.
These include £116m to help store manure and slurry and to stop it from polluting rivers when it is…
