After the launch of the NFU’s environment report Our environment, our food, our future in 2019, the NFU will continue to celebrate and promote the work that farming does to maintain, protect and enhance the environment alongside producing food.
This has included relaunching the CFE partnership as Championing the Farmed Environment in February and marking the 10th anniversary of the partnership in November. The NFU also sponsored the GWCT Big Farmland Bird Count in February. The headline results showed that 1,400 people – a 40% increase – recorded 140 species more than one million acres.
Going into 2020, we will have a continued focus on the future Environmental Land Management Scheme (ELMS) and net zero. We want to ensure ELMS delivers through fair reward, simplicity, accessibility for all and compatibility with production and the farmer at the heart.
Our interest in the NFU’s aspiration for farming to be net zero by 2040 is in contributing to the debate about how we can transform farming productivity and in how we can increase and manage farmland carbon storage in soils and vegetation.
Hear more from our board and forum chairman on their plans for 2020 below: