Farming in the shadow of COVID-19: Plan and plan–and then plan some more
Following the global outbreak of COVID-19, we know that many farmers (particularly those who supply the hospitality sector) have lost the majority of their markets almost overnight. We also know some farmers with established home delivery services, online sales or farm shops have been inundated by desperate customers. At the same time, many of the services and supply chains that farmers rely on—think animal feed or veterinary services—are at risk of disruption. Regardless of business model, many farmers are now…
Responding to COVID-19
We’ve been in touch with our team and farmers, and wanted to also share with our wider community how we are addressing the challenges that arise from COVID-19. We have suspended travel since March 5 and will be reviewing this decision regularly. As an organisation we are respectful of our team members and many stakeholders’ varying health risks, and recognize it would be reckless to travel at a time when we are not certain of the location or spread of…
Does the UK really have a future with no farmers?
This past weekend it was confirmed that a senior adviser within the UK government believes farming is apparently no longer required in the UK, suggesting it would be better to write farmers out of the picture and replace their produce with imports. This comes as a slap in the face to many of us in agriculture and does not bode well for the future of farming in this country. Following years of turmoil, misinformation and ‘economy with the truth’ (to…
BBC Wildly Unbalanced on UK Farmers and Climate Change
“Completely misleading… A huge disservice to British farming.” After watching the BBC’s documentary, ‘Meat: A Threat To Our Planet?’ this week, that’s probably the only quote that I can safely print from the countless farmers I have subsequently spoken to in my role as a beef farmer and Executive Director of A Greener World UK. And what a disservice it was. After years of one-sided criticisms of UK farming in the UK media, the BBC’s programme represents yet another body…
DON’T THROW UK FARMING UNDER A BUS
Fears are growing that UK food safeguards could be ‘traded away’ as part of a much-prized post-Brexit U.S. trade deal with Donald Trump, exposing consumers to imported chlorine-washed chicken, hormone-raised beef, battery cage eggs and GM crops—and threatening the livelihood of thousands of UK farming families. A recent report in The Independent warns that Boris Johnson is planning a “quickfire US trade deal after Brexit that would slash UK food standards by stripping out protections imposed by Parliament earlier this…
A Greener World United Kingdom
