Devolution provides the opportunity to create Wales specific solutions to the food and energy crisis - that was the key message delivered by the FUW meeting Members of the Senedd at the Union’s annual Cardiff Farmhouse Breakfast event.
The event, which was held at the Norwegian Church on Tuesday 24 January 2023, highlighted that the Agriculture Bill currently being considered by the Senedd - a Bill that represents the biggest changes for Welsh agriculture since the UK joined the European Union - has the potential to solve many of the issues the country is currently facing.
Almost by definition, farmers are food producers, and it is worth remembering at the first Senedd Breakfast event held since the pandemic threw the entire world into turmoil in 2020, how close the country came to critical breakdowns in global and domestic food supply chains during the pandemic.
Supply chains continue to suffer the aftereffects of the darkest days of the pandemic, on top of which there are now the impacts of Russia’s war on Ukraine - a war in which Vladimir Putin has weaponised not only energy, but also food - as recently highlighted in the World Economic Forum.
Members of the Senedd as politicians are expected to consider and act on global, national and local challenges for their constituents. Global events which impact farming, and therefore everyone who eats today, have led to increases in agricultural input costs approaching 30% in the UK, while consumer food prices have risen alarmingly - but by a fraction of that rate. In addition, climate change is creating difficult growing conditions for farmers, with 2022 being the warmest year on record for the UK.
This is against a background whereby the UK’s reliance on other countries for food has almost doubled since the mid 1980s, with 40% of UK food now imported compared with around 22% in the mid 1980s. This includes indigenous foods that can be produced in the UK, with the reliance increasing five fold, from 5% to 25% during the same period - something that may worsen as the UK Government strikes dangerously liberal trade deals with major food exporting nations such as Australia and New Zealand.
But devolution provides the opportunity to create local and Wales specific solutions to these problems, in the form of the Agriculture Bill currently being considered by the Senedd - a Bill that represents the biggest changes for Welsh agriculture since the UK joined the European Union. And at the heart of those solutions are the family farms that are the backbone of food production, rural economies and culture, and valued environments and landscapes.
Those joining the Union for breakfast in Cardiff also heard that the FUW believes that such an important and groundbreaking piece of legislation must explicitly seek to ensure the economic viability of farming families and the rural economy in Wales - not just in narrative, or by accident, but by design.
This would ensure that the Bill is truly holistic - that is, balancing the internationally recognised pillars of environmental, social and economic sustainability. Everyone knows what happens when one of the legs is removed from a three legged stool.
Making land management decisions and creating environmental outcomes for Wales cannot happen in isolation to Welsh farming businesses, the families who work the land, or the local and global markets they produce for.
Farmers manage over 80% of the land in Wales for their livelihoods, and therefore the Bill and the support policies which follow must ensure they are economically resilient businesses, which can invest in and deliver on these environmental Sustainable Land Management objectives while also producing economic multiplier effects for both the wider rural economy and the food supply chain, in addition to their unique contribution to rural communities and the Welsh language.
Members of the Senedd were also reminded of another essential role Wales’ family farms increasingly play - renewable energy production.
Nobody needs reminding of the energy security crisis that Putin's actions have revealed so starkly, the nation has only tapped into a fraction of the potential for Wales’ family farms to further contribute to tackling this while reducing their own carbon footprints and continuing to feed our nations’ populations.
The grave dangers of throwing caution to the wind when it comes to food and energy security are there for all to see, so whatever path Westminster decides to follow, the devolved administrations here in Wales must take a holistic approach to the responsibilities to local, national and global populations.