CPC2020: Net zero, farming and trade: feeding the nation and protecting the planet - a podcast by Conservative Environment Network

Panel: Sam Hall (CEN Director, Chair), Richard Walker (Managing Director, Iceland Foods), Minette Batters (President, NFU), Richard Graham MP (Prime Minister’s Trade Envoy for Indonesia, ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), Philippines & Malaysia, CEN)

We cannot solve environmental challenges like climate change and biodiversity loss without our farmers. As food producers and stewards of some 70% of UK land, farmers are responsible not only for ensuring that the food we eat is high quality, but also for protecting our landscapes and enabling our wildlife to flourish. As we develop new policies on agriculture, the environment, and trade outside the EU, how can we support a sustainable and profitable future for British agriculture in a net zero world?

Farming is the foundation of the UK’s £120 billion food and drink sector, which is now our fourth largest exporting sector. Rewarding more sustainable land management and food production as we leave the EU will be crucial in reaching the UK’s world-leading net zero target and ensuring our farmers are able to carry on feeding the nation for decades and centuries to come. This progress is partly contingent, however, on a supportive trade policy that protects high UK environmental standards in agriculture. 

This panel will discuss agriculture's role in delivering net zero, high-quality food, and free trade. Chiefly, how the government can work with the sector to deliver the NFU’s ambitious 2040 net zero target. It will also explore how we can back British farmers in future trade deals and promote high environmental and animal welfare standards at home and around the world.

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