Thread by @guyshrubsole

I’m shocked, shocked to hear that the ‘net zero aspiration’ for farming trumpeted by the National Farmers Union in 2019 is now ‘in doubt’

The NFU’s plan refused to consider significant land use change or dietary shift & favoured bioenergy crops instead 1/ bbc.co.uk/news/articles/…

2/ The NFU’s now blaming the last Govt for not including enough ‘climate-friendly measures’ in ELMS. Look, we can all hate on the Tories. But it was the NFU that lobbied vociferously to water down ELMS - leaving the most ambitious tier, Landscape Recovery, with 5% of the budget

3/ Where I agree with the NFU is in increasing the budget for ELMS to pay for more nature restoration - rather than cut it as Treasury are rumoured to want.

But we also need far greater accountability for landowners to actually deliver nature recovery & value for money.

4/ In some cases, it would be better value for money for the public sector to acquire land itself for nature restoration - rather than spend large sums ‘renting’ environmental outcomes that too often aren’t delivered.

Why shouldn’t Natural England & National Parks own more land?

5/ The NFU has popularised the idea that landowners & farmers are ‘custodians of the countryside’ - waging a PR campaign on this since the 1970s.

The framing’s deliberate: we’re trusted stewards, so let’s prioritise voluntary action & transfers of public money - not regulation.

6/ The trouble is, ‘voluntary initiatives’ usually fail - witness the NFU now back-pedalling on its voluntary pledge of net zero farming by 2040, just 5 years after it was announced to great fanfare.

This won’t change until land use is better regulated & made more accountable.

7/ To rescue nature & bring down land use emissions, Labour can’t simply trust lobby groups like the NFU to act in good faith and self-regulate.

And the era of free public money with minimal strings attached is over.

Some farmers & landowners are great stewards. Others aren’t.

8/ So other policy levers will be essential: a Land Use Framework, tougher environmental regulations, greater support for green watchdogs, more public & community land ownership, more accountability for major landowners (public & private).

More in my book The Lie of the Land!