Tackling the future of farming

The National Farmers Union’s (NFU) annual conference, held recently in Birmingham, had its eyes fixed firmly on the future of farming in the context of climate change, rapidly rising world demand for food, bio-energy and other factors to create threats and opportunities for Britain’s future farmers and growers.

Speakers at the conference included NFU president Peter Kendall, EU agriculture commissioner Marian Fischer Boel, Defra secretary of state David Miliband and Sainsbury chief executive Justin King.
The National Federation of Young Farmers joined forces with the NFU and addressed the needs and aspirations of young people coming into the industry as well as how to attract more of them.
A series of breakout sessions were held featuring the commodities including dairy, livestock, poultry, horticulture as well as the CAP health check, farming for energy and the future of levy boards.
Speaking at the conference, Fischer Boel was asked whether she thought there was a risk the reform of CAP would lead to the industrialisation of farming as smaller farms were squeezed out by market forces.“We need to find the right balance. I want a European agriculture that’s diversified and believe we can manage to have both. That’s the reason we need to have our rural development programme. We can encourage the small farms to deliver specific goods to the public, rural tourism, off farm sales – all these things that it’s much more difficult to do on a big scale, she said.