by The farmers avoid the production of organic food after the government has withdrawn support to increase the green agriculture.
The sudden suspension of the sustainable agricultural incentive (SFI) last month made the organic farming a more risky proposal, farmers and experts told the Telegraph.
The SFI paid farmers for switching to organic methods as well as other public green goods such as cleaner water and healthier soil.
Activists have now said that the withdrawal of the support undermines the long -term goal of the government to produce more environmentally friendly food in Germany.
It is the latest in a series of blows in British agriculture under the Labor government since taking office in July.
There are fears for the future of thousands of family businesses after Rachel Reeves imposed a 20 percent inheritance tax rate for agricultural assets worth more than 1 million pounds in their first budget last year.
The levy will come into force in 2026 and experts have warned that the majority of farmers will not benefit from a allowance of £ 3 million created by the Chancellor.
In the following month, grants that help farmers to remove the environment were also withdrawn from labor.
Since then, the ministers have scraped a fund of mental health for farmers who had been available since 2022, but was handled on March 31.
Debbie Wilkins, a third generation beef, dairy products and arable farmers in Gloucestershire, intended to convert their operation this summer in a joint company with other young farmers nearby in organic.
However, this plan was put on hold after being just missed to secure the financing of the SFI, which would have supported the farm through the transition. It left a hole of 60,000 pounds in her budget.
“It all looked pretty good until the SFI was pulled,” she said. “All of our costs and our models were based on the SFI support. So we are back in first place.”
When the United Kingdom left the EU, the government swore to announce a green agricultural revolution.
The sector was solved from the stricts of the common agricultural politics of the EU, which is based exclusively based on agriculture, and the driver was behind the so -called butter mountains and milk lakes.
Instead, Great Britain can pay farmers for the production of public goods such as clean air, water and better soils, which leads to greener farms and happier animals.
On this basis, the organic farming in Great Britain should be booming, especially since the demand in 2024 increases with around 7.5 percent on a market worth £ 3.7 billion.
According to the soil association, the amount of land that is managed for organic numbers remains static at around 3 percent.
“This means that we basically import a lot of organic food and pour out the environmental and animal welfare services,” said Brendan Costelloe, the director of the association’s policy.
“There are many farmers who want to get into programs, which is really positive, and Defra just pulled the carpet on it.”
“There is a risk of going another way and as far as you are on the way, how likely is it that you somehow come back to organic conversion?”
Farmers such as Debbie are supposedly exactly those who want to support the government as the future of the industry. She is a member of the natural -friendly farming network and believes that the greener production is the best way.
“I have a love of nature,” she said. “Just seeing what happens to the ground and seeing nature around me would like to manage me more than against it.”
She adds: “The government says one thing, but then her actions are different.”
According to Costelloe, programs such as the SFI as a bridging support for the conversion process are of crucial importance, in which farmers do not produce as much.
“You have to stop using herbicides, etc., and it takes a few years before you can effectively improve your soil quality and bring it to a level that enables you to manage more easily under organic certification,” he said.
“During this time, farmers need financial support to help them with this early transition.”
“An unpredictable business”
The SFI system was discontinued to new applicants without warning in March after the government announced that they had triggered the budget of £ 1.05 billion for 2024-2026. It is expected that it will return after the expenditure check in June, but with a reduced budget.
The program of the program, which was criticized under the Tory government because of its shaky introduction, has left the uncertainty in the industry.
“Agriculture is naturally a fairly unpredictable business,” said Costelloe. “The more stability you can give farmers through financial support, the better.
“If you are not even able to give you a certain level of security, it really becomes a very difficult business.”
The uncertainty in the financing not only raises the question of whether they should continue with organic production.
This is the dilemma with which Jane bassett opposes, the 40 cows and 300 sheep on a highland -bio family farm stop in the Peak district after missing the SFI financing because she says that she was an “error in the system”.
A large part of the country that ends up is in a place with special scientific interest and gives your application an additional complexity.
“On this long and agonizing journey that we made in the development of SFI, we finally had the point that we got an application together, and we were free to submit it to two days,” she said. “And then they pull the plug out of the blue, see them. So absolutely devastating, really without your own fault.”
The loss of financing means that it is unable to carry out planned work to plant a small forest country, and the uncertainty has left doubts as to whether the green agriculture is the way forward.
“This is exactly like the last nail in the coffin, with the pressure we have on the industry from all areas,” she said.
“The only certainty is uncertainty and you just have to do what is best for your own company.
“We always managed as well as possible in nature and always have nature in mind. But now we have a real dilemma.”
She added: “At the moment we are biological.
“Isn’t that a sad day that we say that?”
