NFU director of policy Andrew Clark said: “Farmers will be disappointed that purely for the convenience of their argument Adam Smith Institute chooses to overlook the value of food and environmental roles farming plays in the green belt.
“The NFU appreciates that our agricultural land, whether it forms part of green belt or the wider countryside, is valued through the town planning system for the essential role it performs for food production and for its landscape and environmental qualities, as well as its network of public footpaths. At the same time, we also recognise that there is a clear need for more affordable homes to be built in rural areas.
“The authors of this report completely fail to appreciate the range of environmental services that can be provided by farmland. Our farmers work extremely hard to protect and enhance millions of hectares of British countryside, maintaining footpaths, protecting watercourses and managing wildlife habitats.
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England currently has 677,000 hectares of land voluntarily put aside for wildlife
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Hedgerows have increased by 50,000km to 550,000kms in England since 1990
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Farmers have over 6,781 km of fenced watercourses (equivalent to five times the distance from Lands’ End to John O’Groats)
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England has about 190,000km (118,000 miles) of public rights of way which criss-cross farmland – 78 per cent of those trails are footpaths
“The NFU does not recognise the suggested interpretation of ‘intensive agriculture’. There is an Agricultural Land Classification that exists to explain how agricultural land is defined. We recognise that the planning system already allows local communities both to make decisions on where to allocate housing land and on the best use of the green belt through the local planning system.”