East's farmers facing 'perfect storm' of problems which needs tackling quick
That's the message from our National Farmers Union as their national conference draws to a close today.
Farmers across the East are facing a 'perfect storm' of problems, that needs to be fixed quickly and with a coherent plan.
That's the message from our National Farmers Union as their national conference draws to a close today.
Glenn Buckingham, is the group's Suffolk County Chair: "I think many farmers are worried. The issues are almost the perfect storm, you have labour, energy and environmental threats. It is very difficult for us to see the future, the real aim of this conference is to try to get the message to the Government, so we can get a coherent plan."
He told us some are suffering more than others: "Pigs are being slaughtered because we don't have enough staff to process in the abattoirs. It's a really big waste and it's a result of the Brexit decision and partly Covid. There's a lot of challenges and they just keep on coming."
Mr Buckingham went on the local sector's suffering from DEFRA's current "scatter-gun approach": "We've got things like re-wilding, we've got the planting of thirty-thousand hectares of trees, with the potential to take this land out of use when it comes to growing food. These are really serious issues, because we are a highly populated country, so therefore we need increased bio-diversity and carbon capture, but we must do that whilst we are producing food."
He concluded by telling us that it's not just supply chain issues that are troubling local business: "Water resources is going to be a prime thing moving forwards and dealing with the effects of climate change. Obviously for some farms it's the labour, the fact that we don't get as many migrant workers coming across with from other countries to help with harvest, particularly in the fruit and vegetable sector. There are many challenges we have to deal with but water increasingly going forwards is one of them."