A powerful report from Sustain member the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) argues that inappropriately subsidised industrial farming has become counter-productive, and that 'a new model' is urgently needed.
New Model Farming: Resilience through Diversity makes the case that chemical farming and industrialisation have removed livestock from fields, turned varied landscapes into monocultures and stripped away the abundance of natural life from soil and countryside. Alongside the impacts on ecosystems, farms, farmers and workers have been reduced in number. Fewer people have any real link to farming.
Something needs to change, the report concludes, to restore the health, abundance and variety of the natural environment and make food less anonymous, without connection to seasons, plot or place. We need 'new farms and farmers, starting with horticulture, connected to communities and selling locally to them. We need greater diversity in fields and on farms, with crops, livestock and nature in better balance'.
The report proposes a number of policy measures that would encourage new entrants to farming, improve farmers' financial stability, and align financial supports and market conditions with the needs of climate-resilient, multi-purpose farming.
New Model Farming is the first in a planned series of research papers by CPRE examining different aspects of the food and farming system. Read the full report here.
Find out more about Sustain's ongoing campaign work for a more resilient and fairer food system here.
Sustain: Sustain The alliance for better food and farming advocates food and agriculture policies and practices that enhance the health and welfare of people and animals, improve the working and living environment, enrich society and culture and promote equity.
