A review of the UK’s farm assurance schemes has been published. The Review was commissioned by the UK’s farming unions and the AHDB in the wake of Red Tractor’s failed plans to introduce the Greener Farmers Commitment back in March 2024. It was undertaken by Dr. David Llewellyn, Mark Suthern, Katrina Williams and James Withers.
The Review, which can be found at https://promar-international.com/farm-assurance-review/ concludes ‘…Farm Assurance in the UK is a necessary and important component of the food production landscape and should be retained by the farming and food production sectors, of which and to which, it is a significant asset‘ but it also goes onto say ‘However, farm assurance can and must be improved’. It found that ‘in spite of the support for, and the benefits of, farm assurance in principle, there is much that is not right in practice.
The Review identified nine strategic recommendations. Within each recommendation there are a number of ‘practical’ and ‘actionable’ recommendations (56 in total). The headline recommendations are;
- On-farm audits must be reduced, simplified and delivered more consistently
- There must be a transformational step forward in embracing technology and managing data to deliver more effective farm assurance with greater added value for all
- Farm assurance schemes need to reset and/or restate their decision-making structures to establish farmers as the driving voice in standards development
- A new industry-led initiative must set out the future environmental ambitions for farm assurance, establishing this as an area of competitive advantage for UK farming
- The inclusion of regulatory requirements within farm assurance standards and audits should be conditional on government and regulators agreeing a form of ‘earned recognition’
- There must be greater coordination in the way in which farm assurance operates across the UK
- Farm assurance schemes must better position the UK farming industry in world food markets and in competition with imported food
- All farm assurance schemes must review, and, where necessary, improve their methods of communication with the farming industry
- The Red Tractor scheme must complete the implementation of recommendations in the Campbell Tickell report.
If you found this article useful, there are numerous additional articles published each month on our Professional Update bulletin service. You can access a no obligation 90-day free trial via the link below.
Sign up to the Professional Update
