Independent review calls for ‘fundamental reset’ to improve farm profitability

Defra has published an independent review into improving profitability for farm businesses and achieve greater “financial certainty” for farmers. The review offers 57 recommendations to ensure farms can be financially viable while producing food and delivering for the environment.

Sustain contributed evidence to the review and highlighted the need to improve supply chain fairness and derisk the agroecological transition for farm businesses, calls that have been reflected in the publication.

The review was published December last year, and spans 155 pages. Led by Baroness Minette Batters, former president of the National Farmers Union (NFU), the Farming Profitability review promises to realise the following benefits for farmers:

• greater clarity of government policy and planning
• more options to sell their produce
• access to new markets
• increased demand for locally-grown produce
• fairer supply chains
• upskilling through peer-to-peer learning
• single source of advice, skills and research
• access to stable private and public funding
• better farming policy through industry partnership

Baroness Batters reflected that the scale of change would require a “fundamental reset of how we value food and farming” but warned that there is there is “no silver bullet to achieve farming profitability”.

The review echoed calls by Sustain to improve supply chain fairness in its recommendations, citing “clear support for regulation of the relationships between farmers/growers and the rest of the supply chain”. Baroness Batters concluded, “the focus must be on strengthening, extending and assuring the roles of the GCA and ASCA now and in the future.”

The review’s findings will provide input for the Food Strategy, Farming Roadmap and the Land Use Framework – all of which are forthcoming in 2026 - as well as wider government missions and priorities, including economic growth. Originally commissioned by Steve Reed, then Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the review still awaits an official response from the new minister, Emma Reynolds.

Georgina Edwards, Sustainable Farming Campaign Officer, says:

“We are pleased to see that the Farming Profitability Review acknowledges the fundamental power imbalance in the food supply chain, that leaves farmers bearing most of the financial risk and receiving less than 1% of the profits for the food that they produce.

Expanding and strengthening regulation could be a game-changer for farmers if implemented in the right way. To achieve this, we need joined up action from ministers in both Defra and the Department of Business and Trade, to streamline existing regulations into a unified framework that has oversight over the whole supply chain.”

The 57 recommendations also touch on Environmental Land Management schemes (ELMs), support for horticulture, public sector procurement standards, changes to planning and carbon offsetting.

Read Sustain’s full submission to the Farming Profitability Review