Achieving net zero greenhouse gas emissions should be the aim of the UK agriculture industry, the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) has said.
“Our aim must be ambitious, to get our industry to net zero across all greenhouse gas emissions by 2040 or before,” NFU president Minette Batters told delegates at the Oxford Farming Conference on Thursday.
Batters said that UK agriculture should not be scaled back to lower greenhouse gas emissions as it would lead to imports of food from countries where farming systems have higher carbon footprints than the UK.
Our aim must be ambitious, to get our industry to net zero across all greenhouse gas emissions by 2040 or before
She quoted figures from the FAO which estimates that UK beef production is 2.5 times more efficient than the world average and four times more efficient than South America.
Global issue
It was a point reiterated by NFU deputy president Guy Smith in an interview with the Irish Farmers Journal on Friday.
“This shouldn’t be done by downsizing British agriculture because all you are doing is exporting your carbon footprint to other parts of the world and these issues are global, they are not national,” he said at the final day of the 2019 Oxford Farming Conference.
Smith said he was confident that achieving net zero greenhouse gas emissions in UK farming could be done through driving efficiencies and use of technology.
“I have visited farms where they are feeding garlic and ginger supplements to dairy cows to reduce their methane emissions and arable farmers can use new technologies to reduce their carbon footprint,” the Essex tillage farmer said.
“I think there are technical fixes to this and I think this has got to be the ambition for the industry,” Smith added.
More coverage from the Oxford Farming Coverage is available here and will feature in next week’s NI and Scottish print editions. Read more
No long-term commitment on UK ag funding
Mixed thoughts on Brexit’s impact on UK farming at Oxford
Achieving net zero greenhouse gas emissions should be the aim of the UK agriculture industry, the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) has said.
“Our aim must be ambitious, to get our industry to net zero across all greenhouse gas emissions by 2040 or before,” NFU president Minette Batters told delegates at the Oxford Farming Conference on Thursday.
Batters said that UK agriculture should not be scaled back to lower greenhouse gas emissions as it would lead to imports of food from countries where farming systems have higher carbon footprints than the UK.
Our aim must be ambitious, to get our industry to net zero across all greenhouse gas emissions by 2040 or before
She quoted figures from the FAO which estimates that UK beef production is 2.5 times more efficient than the world average and four times more efficient than South America.
Global issue
It was a point reiterated by NFU deputy president Guy Smith in an interview with the Irish Farmers Journal on Friday.
“This shouldn’t be done by downsizing British agriculture because all you are doing is exporting your carbon footprint to other parts of the world and these issues are global, they are not national,” he said at the final day of the 2019 Oxford Farming Conference.
Smith said he was confident that achieving net zero greenhouse gas emissions in UK farming could be done through driving efficiencies and use of technology.
“I have visited farms where they are feeding garlic and ginger supplements to dairy cows to reduce their methane emissions and arable farmers can use new technologies to reduce their carbon footprint,” the Essex tillage farmer said.
“I think there are technical fixes to this and I think this has got to be the ambition for the industry,” Smith added.
More coverage from the Oxford Farming Coverage is available here and will feature in next week’s NI and Scottish print editions. Read more
No long-term commitment on UK ag funding
Mixed thoughts on Brexit’s impact on UK farming at Oxford
This is a subscriber-only article
SHARING OPTIONS: