Farm and environmental groups have warned the new payment rates for the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI), published this week, are too low and ‘lack ambition’.

Ministers failed to bring in butchers from overseas in time to avoid a labour crisis because they were expecting furloughed workers who had been laid off to fill the shortfall, according to Nick Allen, chief executive of the British Meat Processors Association.

Labour’s Shadow Farming Minister, Daniel Zeichner, has committed the party to backing a food self-sufficiency target.

Jim McMahon, MP for Oldham West and Royton, has been appointed Shadow Defra Secretary by Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer in a reshuffle.

The Welsh Conservatives have urged Ministers to ban foreign multinationals from ‘greenwashing’ their emissions by using public money to plant trees.

Farm groups have raised conflict of interest concerns after an Environment Agency (EA) employee working on Nitrate Vulnerable Zones (NVZs) policy was found to have spoken at an Animal Rebellion march.

The Tenant Farmers Association (TFA) has accused Defra Minister Lord Benyon of giving a ‘completely incorrect’ account of a recent meeting with Farming Minister Victoria Prentis to the House of Lords.

The Nature Friendly Farming Network has called for Government support to help farmers move away from diesel, after Defra Minister Lord Benyon claimed it would not be used on-farm in 15 years time.

The Nature Friendly Farming Network has called for Government support to help farmers move away from diesel, after Defra Minister Lord Benyon claimed it would not be used on-farm in 15 years’ time.

When it comes to trade, the Kiwis know their onions. That much is clear from the news that the New Zealand Government is quickly moving to capitalise on its trade deal with the UK, which will remove all tariffs on this staple vegetable from the first day it comes into force.