Farm Business

While the world is captured by the ravages of Covid 19, the practice of a former political spin doctor to use a ‘crisis to bury bad news’ is as alive as ever.

Defra non-executive director Ben Goldsmith has called for ‘rewilding’ to be renamed ‘wilder farming’ in order to reassure farmers they are central to the movement.

A massive 80 per cent of rural businesses are expecting their profits to fall in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, according to the latest Rural Sentiment Survey from Knight Frank.

A meat packing factory in Yorkshire which supplies Asda has been temporarily shut due to a Covid-19 outbreak. 

The Government has announced the launch of Free Trade Agreement (FTA) negotiations with two of the world’s largest sheepmeat exporters, sparking concern that the UK’s domestic sheep market could be severely undermined.

The US’s largest beef processors have been ordered to provide information in relation to anti-competitive practices during the pandemic.

Horticulture chiefs have warned growers will face a steep increase in costs as they struggle to retain and attract workers amid the Covid-19 pandemic.  

Trade Ministers are trying to build bridges with farmers, but without legal guarantees to protect our standards, their efforts will not be enough, says Mark Bridgeman, president of the CLA.

Many fear nature restoration represents a threat to farming communities in the uplands, but nothing could be further from the truth. ‘Wilder farming’ is a better way to describe the changes needed than ‘rewilding’, says Defra non-executive director Ben Goldsmith.

In February, a key Government adviser was telling Ministers UK food production is not critically important. Let’s hope the pandemic has shown our trade negotiators the opposite is true, says Neil Farmer, an arable and sheep farmer from the Herefordshire-Worcestershire border.