Responding to the final Farm Assurance Review (FAR) progress report, the four UK farming unions said: “Our organisations continue to work hard on multiple aspects of the report’s recommendations to ensure Britain’s farmers and growers have a greater voice in the development of farm assurance standards.
“Although good progress has been made, several areas highlighted within the report still require urgent action.
“On environmental measurement, we must reach a consensus around an industry-led approach and ensure reporting has a clear purpose, provides genuine value and involves farmers and growers from day one.
“Issues within the combinable crops sector also need to be addressed with structural changes urgently needed to abandon the one-size-fits-all approach and lift the unsustainable audit burden on our growers.
“We will continue to engage with the industry and the wider supply chain to make the changes happen that we all want to see.
“But as the report makes clear, government also needs to urgently step up and recognise the value of farm assurance and its role in providing high quality, British food. It must ensure that our farmers and growers are not unfairly forced to compete with imported products that would be illegal to produce here, and establish the fair, transparent marketplace our farmers and growers deserve.
“This review marks a vital reset moment to build a modern assurance framework fit for purpose and the four UK farming unions remain committed to the important role assurance plays in underpinning the safety, traceability and quality of food produced on British farms."
Notes to editor:
- The four UK farming unions are the National Farmers’ Union (NFU), NFU Cymru, NFU Scotland and the Ulster Farmers’ Union.
- The UK Farm Assurance Review (UKFAR) concluded the final stage of a post-review monitoring exercise with the publication today of the second of its monitoring reports. This stage of the process was commissioned by the four UK farming unions and the Agriculture & Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) and was conducted independently by the Monitoring and Reporting Commissioner, Dr David Llewellyn.
- More detail here on the Farm Assurance reviews.