Farm Business

While for the most part agriculture has avoided the worst effects of Covid-19, minds are certainly starting to focus on the breadth of change heading the industry’s way in 2021, namely Brexit and the shifting sands of farm support.

Vegans face a 43% higher risk for bone fractures than meat eaters

The EU’s Farm to Fork Strategy, which sets a target to reduce pesticide use by 50 per cent, would negatively affect the world’s most food-insecure populations. The UK should not follow suit, says Adam Speed, director of public affairs at the Crop Protection Association.

2020 has been a challenging year for farmers, but with the end of the transition period, changes to direct payments and new trade deals on the horizon, 2021 may bring further hardship, says Conservative peer Anne McIntosh.

Brexit will create winners and losers in farming, but the direction of travel makes me fear there will be more losers than winners, says Oliver Dowding, an apple grower in South East Somerset.

Farmers will benefit from three income streams in future - primary food, public goods and carbon trading - and should not delay in embarking on their sustainability journey. 

Industry leaders have warned farmers will face ‘major financial hardship’ during the transition away from direct payments, with Defra planning to maintain the income foregone payment model for the foreseeable future.

A GCSE in natural history has been branded a ‘great opportunity’ to reconnect farming and children by the NFU.  

Nineteen Nuffield Farming Scholars took to the virtual stage to share the findings of their weeks of global travel and research. Hannah Binns finds out more.  

Ancillary rural businesses and communities which hinge on farming in Wales’ uplands face significant threats from a bad trade deal or if farm profitability takes a hit.