Prince Charles warns the focus on producing ‘cheap food’ is putting smaller family farms under threat and says losing them would ‘rip the heart out of the British countryside’
- Prince Charles has warned modern farming is putting family farms at risk
- Prince of Wales said focus on producing plentiful and cheep food was putting smaller farms that are the ‘backbone of Britain’s rural communities’ at risk
- The royal made the comments in an essay for BBC Radio 4’s Today programme
- Comes ahead of tomorrow’s publication of the National Food Strategy
Prince Charles has warned modern farming methods are threatening the future of smaller, family-run businesses that are at the heart of British rural life.
In an essay for BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, the prince, who has long been a proponent of sustainable farming, said the focus on producing plentiful and cheap food is putting smaller farms, and the environment, under unsustainable pressure.
He added the loss of these smaller farms would ‘rip the heart out of the British countryside’ and ‘break the backbone of Britain’s rural communities’.
Prince Charles has warned modern farming methods are threatening the future of smaller, family-run businesses that are at the heart of British rural life
Charles’s comments come ahead of the publication of the National Food Strategy, the first major review of Britain’s food system in more than 70 years.
The report, published tomorrow, will explore the links between food production and environmental degradation including climate change, biodiversity loss, pollution and the sustainable use of resources.
Speaking on the issue, Charles said: ‘Our current approach is forcing many small family farms to the wall. If they go, it will quite simply rip the heart out of the British countryside and break the backbone of British rural communities.
‘So if we want to have food that is healthy and produced in a sustainable way, we must support a diversity of farms that help them make the profound and rapid change the crisis demands.’
In the essay Charles notes how he has watched ‘precious landscapes’ destroyed in the name of ‘efficiency’ in farming and argues the ‘hidden costs’ of modern industrial farming methods are not taken into account.
Charles added the loss of these smaller farms would ‘rip the heart out of the British countryside’ and ‘break the backbone of Britain’s rural communities’
He cites how damage to soils and the emissions from modern farming contribute to global warming.
‘We must put nature back at the heart of the equation,’ he urged. ‘How we produce food has a direct impact on the Earth’s capacity to sustain us, which has a direct impact on human health and economic prosperity.’
On the topic of soils he said: ‘If we regenerate degraded soils around the world, we could capture as much as 70 per cent of the world’s carbon emissions. Only by benefitting nature can we benefit people.’
Charles praised the work of high-profile figures including Marcus Rashford, Jamie Oliver and Henry Dimbleby, the founder of the Leon restaurant chain and head of the National Food Strategy, for helping to improve the nation’s food system.
The royal added there are promising investment opportunities in innovative approach to agriculture.