In my final piece for Agronomist & Arable Farmer I look back at the extraordinary events of the past five years & consider what lessons we must draw for the security of our food supply & resilience of our farm businesses.

Many thanks to Alistair Driver for all the column inches!

Thoughts on Clarkson's Farm 3 anyone? I've just done a quick SWOT analysis (see Thread below) #ClarksonsFarm Farmers Weekly 👇🧵

Stark results from latest National Farmers' Union farmer confidence survey - conducted late 2023 before climate impacts became severe.

English farmers facing perfect storm of low commodity prices, high input costs, slashed govt support & extreme weather 📉
fwi.co.uk/business/halt-…

If your farmers can't plant because the climate won't allow it; it's too expensive; it's not profitable; it's too risky....that's when you'd hope the penny would start to drop in Westminster re the gradual unravelling of our national #foodsecurity ....🙄😬

theguardian.com/business/artic…

Results of our latest Farmer Confidence Survey paint a bleak picture, but there are solutions outlined in our manifesto that the current & future governments can adopt to help rebuild this confidence and protect British food security.

Read more👉ow.ly/E7Yy50RvEfk

NFU members | Farmer confidence has reached record lows, with the NFU’s annual survey revealing 65% of farmers have seen a decline in their profits.

This collapse in confidence raises concerns that their businesses may not survive.

Read more👉 ow.ly/F6sK50RvEiO

When commentators doubt the need for border checks, note that last week alone 3.4t of illegal meat was intercepted inc. 54 unrefrigerated sheep carcasses from Romania wrapped in bin bags.

It’s biosecurity; it’s public health; it’s organised crime.
reader.fwi.co.uk/pugpig_enhance…

The value of land drains to cereal crop productivity writ large. The good bits are lighter land, or over drains. The run off from the road shows beautifully along the left hand hedge. Soils are still so cold spring crops not even showing from the sky.

Land drainage systems that were a key boost to productivity in the 70’s are now failing.

A key aspect of national food security is how we build resilience and replacing tiring infrastructure is a critical piece of the jigsaw!

Quite a lot in here; the patisserie [tricking] ppl into buying a product for which there’s no demand; the misconception that ‘plant based’ = sustainable; farmers trying to scratch a living from producing the basics of life.

Wasting time we don’t have.
bbc.co.uk/news/world-eur…

Emmanuel Macron argues that Russia knows no limits. If Vladimir Putin wins in Ukraine, European security will lie in ruins. Europe must wake up to this new danger, the French president warns econ.st/3w6GJ9q 👇

Looking forward to holding a screening of Six Inches of Soil at The Allerton Project on evening of 3rd June - follow link below for details 🎦

Thanks to 5m Books for advanced view of the book - a lovely piece of work 🙌
eventbrite.co.uk/e/six-inches-o…

'Farm: pick your own rice'

My latest cartoon for tomorrow's The Telegraph

Buy a print of my cartoons at telegraph.co.uk/mattprints

Original artwork from chrisbeetles.com

Great piece here from Joe Stanley 🇺🇦

Particularly that support to build climate resilience doesn’t stop with UK farmers

If we want a secure supply of imports, UK retailers & government will need to do more to support farmers in even more climate vulnerable countries to adapt

Current food labelling is working for the retailers not the customers or the producers? Using made up farm names to promote products cannot give confidence to consumers or farmers. There is still time to respond to Defra UK consultation with your views consult.defra.gov.uk/transforming-f…

THE EVIDENCE
What did England do? They got landowners to pay cull companies to cull badgers in HRA's.
What did Wales do? They spent £5m of taxpayer's money to vaccinate badgers in Pembs.
TB prevalence remained world leadingly high in Pembs whilst it substantially dropped in Eng

Political bait & switch.

We need a better level of discourse heading into the election.

The more appropriate criticism of Labour DEFRA policy is that they don’t currently have one Steve Barclay.