British farmers are best placed to lead the
battle to feed
the world
British farmers are best placed to lead
the battle to feed the world, was the
conclusion of debate at the annual South
of England Farming Conference, held
at the South of England Showground in
Ardingly, West Sussex.
Séan Rickard said that British farmers were
perfectly capable of rising to the challenge
of adopting wholesale intensification.
In front of an audience of 260 farmers and
chaired by Charlotte Smith, presenter of
Radio 4’s Farming Today, leading figures
in agriculture debated whether British
farmers were ‘in the game’ when it came
to feeding the growing global population
or could they be left behind by those
farmers around the world with greater
entrepreneurial flair.
His argument focused on the importance
of investment in research and scale
of production to deliver sustainable
intensification of farming, saying that we
were on the cusp of a drastic innovation
in biotechnology and that efficient,
better educated farmers, using the latest
technology, was the answer to feeding the
growing population. Controversially, he also
said that the Common Agricultural Policy
caused chronic dependence and thwarted
entrepreneurialism among farmers.
Kick-starting the discussion, economist,
government adviser and university lecturer
The second speaker, Alastair Leake,
Director of Policy & Public Affairs for
the Game and Wildlife Conservation
Trust, focused on “not trashing the
environment”, and presented ways
in which he has learnt to improve
biodiversity alongside intensive farming
on the Allerton Project, an experimental
farm in Leicestershire.
He urged farmers to work harder to
preserve wildlife and soil, saying that we
mustn’t get caught up with environmental
legislation when we could do what
worked biologically and logically. “It is
possible for farmers to both increase
production and biodiversity across their
farming systems,” he said.
David Christensen, a farmer from the
Thames Valley area who sits on the
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