According to a survey by ICMResearch for CPRE more than four out of five of the public believe that farmers have a responsibility to look after the landscape and wildlife for future generations – so most people are wrong! I don’t think that farmers have that responsibility but I am grateful to those who behave as though they do, and that’s why we need a mixture of incentive and regulation to ensure that wildlife and landscape are protected for future generations.
Also, fewer than a fifth of adults would accept a more industrialised farming sector.
Peter Kendall, the up-for-reelection President of the NFU, told his customers that they had to be realistic about blah blah blah blah…..
I wonder whether Peter can remember the report by Sir Don Curry after the 2001 Foot and Mouth Outbreak. Its main theme was reconnection – that farming should reconnect with its market (ie what people want, Peter, not what you want) and with the environment. Peter Kendall connects with the environment by saying that there is no biodiversity crisis and ‘if our biodiversity is the same in 30 years time then that is a fair achievement‘.
It’s an interesting report and I will come back to CPRE’s views on farming soon.
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I don’t see why urban people should expect farmers to deliver the things they want for nothing any more than those urban people would be prepared to sweep their own streets or club together to empty their dustbins. However, if urban people are ready to pay they really should have a say – no taxation without representation – and currently we are all contributing to a public payment of £200/ha/per annum for each and every hectare of lowland farmland – we have the right to expect a little more than the simple existence of farmers required at present to do little more than farm the land.
Despite the inertia of Europe which means this situation is unlikely to change any time soon, farmers would do well to develop the sort of popular case the Forestry Commission has successfully made for the national forests before rather than after the big questions start being asked – its well known that the Treasury would dearly love to get its hands on the 50% that comes from the domestic coffers and not through Europe.
Mark I do not know where you are coming from here. Of course farmers should be responsible for not destroying wildlife, wildlife habitats and the landscape and preserving them for future generations to enjoy.
DavidH – I don’t think I have a responsibility to make nature thrive in my garden (although I want to). Nobody can really criticise me if i concrete it over – it’s my garden after all. And likewise, I don’t think we can tell farmers that it is their responsibility to ensure that wildlife thrives on their farms unless we pass laws that require it. We should regulate farming so that wildlife is likely to get a decent deal and incentivise farming so that it is easy for farmers to do the right thing. What gets my goat is that an awful lot of money going into farming is mis-spent and produces very little good for those of us who are the main paymasters.
Think CRPE are just as bad as NFU as both sides can talk a load of rubbish.
Of course 80% want more wildlife friendly farms if the question is loaded.These same people are the ones that as soon as a very small rumour of a shortage grab everything off of supermarket shelves.We have to keep production levels up while improving wildlife.
Of course we want more wildlife friendly farmland but it is not as simple as CRPE puts it,for instance they in this comment they promote using less water but at the same time promote poly tunnels one of the biggest users of water,what rubbish.
Best thing that could happen for wildlife is to ignore groups who do not know what they are talking about or are trying to use facts to their advantage and get conservationists and farmer against each other.
Mark, Do disagree here. The survey is about beliefs not fact. If 80% believe farmers have that responsibility then that is what they believe. It would be incorrect to say they are wrong. The difference here surely is about morality rather than legality. The habitat we have now is as a result of landowners accepting some degree of responsibility. I also believe I have a responsibility to my neighbours and my local environment and I would argue against anyone who says I am wrong. What is wrong is undertaking a survey without proper explanation of the questions.
Sounds like you had a bad day Mark – Happy New Year anyway. Let’s hope this year will be a bit more positive. Lets have some good news. Those who smile in the face of adversity will always win out (or be classed as insane).
I think the perception is right. Farmers are thought to be the guardians of our countryside. Comparing looking after the streets in our towns to millions of acres in the wider countryside is nonesense. Land for nature is finite and the majority of it is under management by farmers, so yes we need and should expect returns for wildlife, especially if we’ re paying for it !
Gert,surely you must be able to get the fact that if farmers do not fulfil the requirements of agri environment schemes they cannot get that part of the money.Even farmers understand that,how long before the educated majority pick it up as well.
Get off farmers backs and get the schemes changed if you are not happy,alternatively buy a farm and show us how to do it.
Dennis – I was talking about perception. Completely agree with you otherwise, although maybe there should be more results based payment of the schemes. Would love to buy a farm, but don’t have the means regrettably.. and you should know by now I’m more alongside farmers helping them with their wildlife than on their backs!
One of the problems with ‘Farmers’ is that people lump them all together. Think of Shops – from huge supermarkets, to the many small cornershops and the specialist retailers with a niche market – and you have a better analogy for UK farmers. There are all types, with varying approaches, styles, knowledge, interest etc.
The economics and dynamics of farming change all the time, and the various farmers respond in their own way to these (fast, slow, ignore). I had a very interesting chat to a local farmer (livestock mainly), who admitted that he only found out how his farm was doing when he did his tax returns (always late). So he tended to stick to the same procedures & practices every year, same rotation, same stock numbers and type, same fertiliser applications. This was a huge contrast to a large private Norfolk estate I visited where they know the crop yields for every part of every field, and so can readily remove unprofitable parts of fields from the arable rotation, and put it into ag-env schemes, or let the gamekeeper manage it for that part of the farm’s business.
So farmers are diverse, as are their farms.
But perhaps it is Defra’s and CPRE views of farm and farmers that is a problem here (and our urbanised population – but that is not really surprising).