British farmers have warned that recent shortages of fresh fruit and vegetables in British supermarkets are partly due to the government’s environmental protection department’s focus on net zero policies. In recent days, major supermarkets have limited the sale of tomatoes and some other produce after a combination of bad weather and transport issues in Africa and Europe caused supply shortages. Some farmers told The Epoch Times that if authorities at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) encouraged food production, British farmers could easily fill the shelves.
The UK government’s future farming policy includes schemes that pay farmers to help combat climate change, as well as grants of £10,000 for every hectare of new woodland created. Plans to restrict solar panels from being installed on productive agricultural lands were dropped in December. The UK produces 61 percent of all the food it needs, and 74 percent of food which can be grown or reared in the UK for all or part of the year. However, British farming is facing major issues across almost all sectors, with the prices of animal feed, nitrogen fertiliser, and fuel skyrocketing in recent months.
Author and farmer Jamie Blackett wrote in The Telegraph that recent food shortages showed that DEFRA was in the grip of what he called “the Green Blob,” who were “wholly uninterested in the messy business of producing food.” He said that the government needs to “think a lot more strategically and they need to design the food system that we actually need.” He said that the system is “badly designed” and could be improved by getting all farmers to adhere to basic principles.
Steve Evans, a dairy farmer based in Pembrokeshire, south-west Wales, told The Epoch Times by email that “government policy is driving our food sovereignty into the ground.” He said that the time has come for the whole pricing structures paid to farmers to change and that DEFRA chasing net zero is going to cause an exodus from agriculture, which will put the UK completely in the hands of overseas markets and availability.
In response to some of the claims about DEFRA’s net zero policies, Food and Farming Minister Mark Spencer told The Epoch Times by email: “The current situation—caused by recent poor weather in North Africa—shows how dependent we can be on certain trade routes for some types of food. I know families expect the fresh produce they need to be on the shelves when they go in for their weekly shop. That is why I am calling in supermarket chiefs to find out what they are doing to get shelves stocked again and to outline how we can avoid a repeat of this. As we do our shopping, we should all give our thanks to the UK’s tens of thousands of farmers and food producers for keeping us fed throughout the year and particularly showing their mettle keeping the nation going during the pandemic.”