Leaders
This is not about abandoning the country’s attempts to tackle the climate emergency. No group knows the devastation an increasingly volatile climate can unleash. Severe flooding, droughts and wildfires have all impacted the agricultural sector in recent years.
But it is dangerous to sacrifice prime agricultural land at the altar of net zero. Countryside charity CPRE says that 59 per cent of England‘s largest operational solar farms are located on productive farmland, while almost a third cover the nation’s ‘best and most versatile’ (BMV) agricultural land.
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Not only does this undermine food security but it also exacerbates climate change. The less food grown here, the more Britain becomes reliant on imports, which come with a carbon footprint of their own. The Tories are right to seek to stop prime agricultural land from being covered in solar panels, especially as Britain is nowhere near close enough to making the most of rooftop solar.
Labour in government has undermined agriculture and efforts to tackle net zero by alienating the rural communities that are key to both challenges. Whether it be through the family farm tax or shoddy handling of subsidy programmes, the government has failed farmers. They have also been betrayed by solar developments being greenlit on farmland.
A rethink is needed across Westminster on how farmers are valued. If a consensus cannot be reached on agricultural policy then there’s a danger that there may not be many farmers left.
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