The UK’s secretary of state for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), Steve Reed, has announced a raft of new policy measures to strengthen national food production and ensure financial and environmental sustainability. But campaigners say the proposals are insufficient to keep farmers in business amid harsh new tax and insurance laws. Reed delivered the proposals yesterday at the Oxford Farming Conference, saying the industry “stands on the edge of an unprecedented global transition” as energy prices, labor shortages and environmental footprints continue to rise.
