Tesco’s chief commercial officer Ashwin Prasad has called on government to deliver a clear plan for UK agriculture at the Oxford Farming Conference as he announced plans to launch two low carbon concept farms in Tesco’s supply chain.
A survey of farmers by Tesco suggests two thirds of UK farmers are already seeing the effects of climate change on their farms, but three quarters haven’t been able to implement all the environmental measures they want to due to high upfront costs, the risk of poor financial returns and a lack of policy certainty from government.
Tesco has consulted with over 300 farmers across the UK to develop a series of recommendations for a more sustainable future for UK farming, alongside Harper Adams University. The resulting ‘Greenprint for UK Farming’, which is attached and will be published here today, urges government to deliver a clear plan for UK agriculture as farmers seek to make their farms more sustainable and transition to net zero.
Recommendations include setting a long-term land use and food security strategy; improved funding for all stages of innovation that aids sustainability; and setting common environmental standards.
- Tesco research shows farmers want government to set clear, long-term food and agriculture policy and provide innovation funding to safeguard future of UK farming
- Tesco announces plans to launch long-term low carbon concept farms to help farmers and suppliers reduce emissions and scale innovative approaches in latest initiative to support the industry’s transition to net zero
- New consultation of British farmers finds that many are seeing climate change impact on farms, but are held back from adopting sustainability measures due to lack of funding and policy uncertainty.
