Farmers need to do more to show how much they benefit environment, says NFU vice-president

Food production goes hand-in-hand with the environment and the farming industry must do more to communicate that message, according to NFU vice-president Rachel Hallos.

Speaking after attending the LibDem Autumn Conference in Brighton last week, the South Pennine-based tenant farmer said she believed the environment would be high on the agenda throughout conference season.

"There is a very, very clear focus on Net Zero and I think that will run across all the party conferences," she said. "As an industry we cannot work in silos of food production and the environment - the two go hand in glove.

"We have got a job to do as an industry to say to the other members of the business community: ‘Yes we get this and we are dealing with it.'

"I am not making excuses but we have been pulled from pillar to post with different messaging. But now we just need to focus on the job in hand – food production, protection of the environment and enhancement of the environment. This is clearly what we have to do."

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While Ms Hallos said the industry had to be much more transparent with its messaging, she also said farmers could not just expect people to understand what is involved in managing a farm.

"The reality is that the public and other businesses do not know what we do. And to be honest, why should they? I know about the NHS, I go to the doctor but I do not know how it operates as a business or what each person's role is. Do I know what is involved in brain surgery? No. But it is our job to get as much information out there as we can."

Ms Hallos said with the decentralisation of government the NFU and its members had an opportunity to spread the word across local councils and the growing number of Mayoral Authorities.

"We have got a big job to do - to have conversations that we as the NFU has a role in helping them know how farming works. And that is where our members come into play – they can show them. We can say to councils and MPs, ‘You do not have to listen to us – come and meet the farmers, hear it from them because they are the ones that matter'."