Politics

Industry groups question new five-point plan to cut reliance on foreign workers

The Environmental Audit Committee argued the framework must set out how land will balance producing food in a sustainable way that supports a resilient food system, while also responding to environmental change

He said the cull would continue in the short term, adding there was enough reason to see it was a way of ‘preventing transmission'. But he added it was not a ‘sustainable answer to the problem' and wanted to work with farmers to develop the cattle vaccine

The Secretary of State said ‘tearing down the barriers' to getting ‘game changing innovation' from the lab onto farm would be at the heart of his approach for British agriculture

Defra said the bill would not have been possible had the UK remained a member of the European Union

Rami Baitieh, chief executive of Morrisons, said the move 'backed Britain's farmers and the high quality food they produce'

A group of Welsh farming and environmental organisations have written a letter to the First Minister, asking for budgetary certainty for the rural affairs portfolio ahead of draft budget being published later this month

In a letter sent to the First Minister, NFUS president Martin Kennedy highlighted a series of 'hollow promises', received from both the previous and current deputy first ministers, that withdrawn money for agriculture would rightly be returned to the sector

The report recommended the Government to fund the widespread, standardised testing of soil through its Environmental Land Management schemes and to work with industry on an agreed set of metrics of soil health by next year

When it comes to the application process, the delivery and the options available to all farmers, there are some inconsistencies, which the industry hopes will be ironed out in the next SFI announcement