Minutes:
*O&S 58/22
Alex Stevens, the Regional Policy Manager for the National Farmers Union (NFU), gave an overview of the NFU’s involvement in the Devon Carbon Plan.
In so doing, reference was made to:
· Domestic food production and energy production having become increasingly important to Central Government;
· Farmers being asked to sign up to the Net Zero Carbon pledge. It was recognised that simple actions could make a real difference;
· The Greenhouse Gas foot printing five-year programme. The Farm carbon toolkit helped farmers, however there could be issues with others taking the data for a marketing tool and farmers worried about the data being used elsewhere. Simple action was knowing some baseline data for farmers was better than nothing;
· Working with the Woodland Trust with tree planting schemes. 15,000 trees had been given out to NFU members over the last few weeks. Infilling of hedgerows and extending hedges were small steps to improve carbon offset. Many grants and information of how to plant trees was available to farmers. If hedges were to increase by 20%, it would be a huge ecological benefit, with the taller the hedge, the deeper the root system;
· NFU Energy provided help and advice with regard to grid connections and renewables particularly with dairy and poultry units;
· Encouraging farmers to take up as many schemes that reduced the impact of carbon on their farms; and
· The ability to arrange for Members to visit a farm if they wished to.
In response to questions:
· The future of agriculture in the local area was likely to have more land ownership outside of agriculture. More farmers were wishing to retire and farm managers may be put in place. Less productive land had to be farmed more sensitively and productive land to be farmed more productively;
· Alternative land use in regard to such things as hedging and fencing off land to use for active travel would be discussed at the next NFU meeting.
· West Devon was located in an area of high livestock production that grew grass very well. It was a challenge to get the balance right between plant based and meat production with people being discerning on what food they buy;
· The need to highlight market dynamics to farmers was important with Devon as a whole felt to be one massive farm providing a balanced diet to consumers;
· The NFU had a place on the Devon Climate Emergency Response Group that fed into the Devon Carbon Plan. The view was expressed that, whilst the Group listened to the science and data supplied, it was not always understood and portrayed.
The Leader outlined that the lead Hub Committee Member for farming was the Lead Member for Economy, with elements also being covered by the Lead Member for the Environment. The continued Council emphasis to be placed upon farming would be a matter for the new Council administration to decide.
Finally, it was agreed that a copy of the presentation slides would be circulated to all Members.
It was then RESOLVED that the Committee note the involvement that the NFU had in the Devon Carbon Plan.