NFU Backs Boost For British Farming After Brexit With National Self Sufficiency Day

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Farming and growing champion the National Farmer’s Union (NFU) has called for Britain to enhance the nation’s ability to grow food and sustain itself as the country approaches Brexit.

The comments come as part of the NFU’s Back British Farming campaign as they work to increase awareness of the amount of food imported into the country. Pointing out that August 6th is “the day our larder would run bare”, the union states that if the nation ate only British-grown produce from January 1st, the country would starve from early August, a situation they are seeking to redress.

The body has called on the government to build policy so that after Brexit “Britain retains its ability to be more self-sufficient”, and to act in ways that will support home-grown food and the agricultural sector as a whole.

Speaking of the campaign, NFU President Meurig Raymond said that while the body is not seeking full self-sufficiency, the amount of food Britain produces for itself is in long term decline, and that Brexit is the perfect opportunity to boost Britain’s agricultural sector. Raymond said: “Food self-sufficiency statistics have always been an important measure of the nation’s ability to feed itself.

“But since the UK voted to leave the EU, and with trade negotiations now starting, the supply of British food is now seen in a very different light. Government recognition of farming’s enormous contribution to this country will be vital in the coming weeks and months.

“Farmers deliver for our economy, providing jobs and driving growth in rural communities. We provide the raw materials for a domestic food industry that employs 3.8m people, generates £109bn in value for the UK economy and 13% of the country’s Gross Domestic Product.”

While importing foods that other nations are better at making, or can only be grown in foreign climates, makes sense, Raymond emphasised that by importing food Britain was capable of growing itself, the nation is only “exporting all the environmental, economic and social benefits that farming delivers here in Britain.”

“The two main responsibilities of any government are to defend its people and feed its people. We are already among the least self-sufficient countries in Europe and dropping to below 50% would be a very insecure position to be in,” said Raymond.

The organisation pointed out that since Brexit, 25 per cent of Brits thought it had become more important to buy domestically produced food, and even before the vote 86 per cent said they wanted to increase the amount of British food they bought.

Some 10 billion eggs were produced in the country last year by about 1,000 poultry farms, with many of them going across the border into Germany

Millions of potentially infected Dutch eggs have been destroyed in recent weeks. Some 10 billion eggs were produced in the country last year by about 1,000 poultry farms, with many of them going across the border into Germany / AFP Image

While there is no suggestion the United Kingdom could struggle to import food — as it has done for centuries — after Brexit, the NFU’s annual domestic food production day calculation comes as a significant food scandal develops on the continent.

German supermarkets took millions of Dutch-laid eggs off the shelves last week after tests showed they may have been contaminated with Fipronil, a pesticide. German food authorities are apparently “frustrated” that Dutch regulators apparently knew about the contamination as far back as June, but didn’t inform their European neighbours, to whom hundreds of millions of eggs are exported every week.

Dutch farms produce some ten billion eggs a year, and many are exported. However, due to the British Red Lion mark that is required of eggs sold in the UK, British supermarkets are not thought to have been affected.

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