FARMERS FOR CLIMATE ACTION recommendations to: government, civil society and policy makers,

VISION

FCA has arisen out of XR Farmers and is a group of crop and livestock farmers who have come together to lobby government to act on the climate and ecological emergency. We urgently need a new farming policy that delivers a just food system that is fair to nature, farmers and consumers.

Significantly, we are a farmer-led group who want to implement a rapid transition to adaptive farming systems. We believe that farming can: – mitigate climate change; secure food resilience; restore nature and soil systems; support and enrich rural communities and economies; and be a key driver for healthy eating and wellbeing.

FARMERS ON THE FRONT LINE OF THE CLIMATE EMERENCY

FCA are calling for a national food, farming and nature policy that optimises resilience to climate change and food security, maintains long term sustainability and productivity, reduces dependence on fossil fuels, artificial fertilizers and supplementary feeding and rebalances nature.

Farmers are already working towards a more balanced food, farming and nature
system through regenerative and agroecological practice, also termed nature friendly farming. We cannot do it alone. We need strong leadership from government, through policies and funding, and robust involvement and consultation with civil society leaders and communities. We need to open a dialogue that bridges difference, brings about systemic change and results in a unified plan of action.

Farmers and landowners working for the public good

In order to achieve benefits to the public good, farmers need a national policy framework that regulates food, nature and land use, provides transitional funding and sets out a scale of incentives and rewards. A system of benchmarking, weighted to reflect regional difference, capacity and opportunity, is needed to measure carbon sequestration and biodiversity restoration. We also believe that all farm businesses should be mandated to have a baseline carbon audit from which to measure progress.

Specific payments for improved land management and farm practice might include:

• Agroforestry (native species), silvo pasture, woodland and orchard grazing;
• Holistic planned grazing, mob grazing, seasonal grazing;
• Rare and native breed livestock systems, 100% pasture fed animals;
• Zero till, extended rotation and cover cropping;
• Water quality and catchment;
• Soil health and carbon sink capacity;
• Use of organic methods of pest and weed control and soil nutrition such as
compost teas, mineral soil conditioners, mycorrhizal inoculants, organic animal manures, companion planting and intercropping;
• Increased biodiversity, extended and integrated wildlife areas, rewilding;
• Significantly reduced use of fossil fuels and increased use of renewable energy;
• Use of smart technology and production diversification into other land uses;
• Localised processing infrastructure and supply chains;
• Community engagement and outreach, social auditing;
• Professional development accreditation in regenerative agriculture.

Farmer-led innovation

The UK farming community holds a repository of knowledge and skills that have contemporarily became less understood and valued. Farmers feel more and more that little distinction is made between nature friendly farming and industrial agriculture. Regenerative farmers can kick start the transition to an adaptive agricultural revolution that can move from niche to mainstream, sharing their knowledge with other farmers. Farmers and conservationists together with the anti-meat noise have created territories that now must to be bridged in this climate and ecological emergency. There are real signs of hope as dialogues continue to develop between farmers, academics and consumers.

FCA has identified the need for an independent, farmer-led research faculty that can draw from on-farm experiences and then be fed into policy and best practice. Further research is needed to demonstrate which systems and practices will most rapidly achieve net zero and halt biodiversity loss.

Furthermore, FCA has identified key economic and social barriers to new entrants seeking to establish smaller scale enterprises such as local vegetable and meat box schemes. We also see the potential to scale up community assisted agriculture schemes thereby providing food security and opportunities to rural communities and enabling farmers to find a new source of income and culture and social capital for their land.

Additional benefits might also be accrued to farming and rural communities though the use of mobile herds and flocks to naturally fertilise arable land and could lead to job creation within the sector. Other opportunities for rural employment might include local and regional habitat coordinators that could link volunteer groups to farmers wanting to create new wildlife and habitat on their farm. The uplands might benefit from community shepherds/lookers whose role would be to restrict the access of animals to specific areas and times and thus help to restore biodiversity and assist busy farmers.

Reframing the farming discourse

The discourse around climate change, diet choice and farming is all too often undermined by misunderstanding and conflicting science. Farmers, conservationists and the plant-based community have tended to be trapped in their own silos. One of the founding drivers behind FCA is to shift the debate from ‘farming as the problem’ to ‘farming as a climate change solution’. We have sought to spread a positive message about the benefits to climate and biodiversity of farmer-led regenerative agriculture. And we have founded that we have been knocking at an open door.

These early gains now need to be developed into a formal strategy.

Firstly, to share skills and practice within the farmer community, through existing and reimagined networks. Secondly, to better equip grassroots farmers to engage with consumers, both to tell their story FCA believes that a new farming, food and nature policy must, at its heart, deliver for the public good and to play an active part in shaping a new food and farming paradigm in a countryside that works for everyone. Thirdly, to develop a food assurance scheme differentiates raw and processed foods that have come from farms with low or zero carbon footprints.

The fundamentals being:

1. Nurturing the soil
2. Allowing nature to thrive alongside productive farming systems
3. Sharing knowledge and learning
4. Creating opportunities for new entrants into regenerative farming
5. Reducing dependence on fossil fuels and synthetic inputs
6. Supporting regenerative livestock systems

MOVING FORWARD

It could be said that to put Extinction Rebellion and farmers in the same sentence might led to a few raised eyebrows. Possibly so, but we want to break out of our echo chamber and get to the heart of the debate. We want to overturn the notion that farming is just big business and to show that regenerative farmers are already taking significant steps to mitigate climate change and halt biodiversity loss. FCA is the next step, to bring a clear message from farmers to government.

The more we talk to fellow farmers, the more we find shared narratives. Be it post Brexit trade, last year’s drought or this year’s extreme rainfall, all point to a very uncertain future in a climate-changed world. What we all agree on is that we need government to act, and act fast.

What started with a John Deere 3350, painted pink, a road trip to London with 15 farmers and a sheepdog has, over a couple of months, grown into something much bigger. A chance to address MPs in Westminster, coverage in national press, TV and radio and a membership and following on social media of 4,000.

Farmers are at the forefront of climate change and we now see its effects on our farms, day to day. FCA do not represent any single agenda, organisation or interest group, neither do we prescribe specific methodologies or solutions. We are, however, pushing for a unified industry message for urgent government action. We will continue to lobby government for a new farming, food and nature policy that has at its heart, soil not oil.

Dagan James and Sarah Shuffell, XR Farmers/FCA Co-founders, October 2019.

For further information call 07973 431714 or 07734 923143.