Politics

Defra’s new Environmental Land Management (ELM) scheme must stop the uplands from being destocked and wilded by stealth, says Phil Stocker, chief executive of the National Sheep Association.

Farming is a resilient industry, but there is still much work to do on issues such as export certificates, trade deals and future policy to prepare us for Brexit, says Matt Legge, a sheep, beef and pig farmer from the Isle of Wight.

A number of factors including Covid-19, the US elections and a La Nina weather event would drive global grain markets

The Tories have already broken their promise to protect British farmers from being undermined by low-standard imports – now they have one chance left to redeem themselves, says Labour Shadow Farming Minister Daniel Zeichner.

The industry has reacted with disappointment after an amendment to the Agriculture Bill which would have banned low-standard food imports was rejected

US Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue has warned global adherence to rules set out in the EU’s Farm to Fork Strategy would double world food prices and plunge millions more people into food insecurity.

A Government decision to reject an amendment to the Agriculture Bill which would have banned low-standard food imports has highlighted growing divisions among the Conservative Party leadership and its backbenchers on the issu

The Speaker of the House of Commons is set to block a key vote on beefing up the Trade and Agriculture Commission (TAC) this evening.

Ahead of the Commons debate on Lords amendments to the Agriculture Bill this week, Ben Lake, Ceredigion MP and Plaid Cymru’s agriculture spokesman in Westminster, warns protecting food standards today is about building a better rural economy for tomorrow.

The Trade and Agriculture Commission could allow Britain to lead the way in raising global standards, but it needs to be given the time and power to do so, says David Herbert, a South Welsh smallholder producing eggs and poultry.