A group of four MPs have visited an arable farm in Suffolk, England to hear from farmers directly about how they have been impacted by “soaring” prices of energy, fuel and fertiliser following the Middle East conflict.
Adam Jogee MP and Ben Goldsborough MP from the Labour Party, Rebecca Paul MP from the Conservative Party and Brian Mathew from the Liberal Democrats all took a tour of E J Baker & Sons in Westhorpe, Mid Suffolk, which is a third-generation family farm.
The trip was organised by the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) as part of its Food and Farming Fellowship Scheme, with the visit taking place on Friday, June 12.
The four policymakers also learnt from NFU’s combinable crops board chair Jamie Burrows and the head of policy and external affairs at the Agricultural Industries Confederation (AIC), who both tagged along on the farm walk.
NFU stated that the visit gave MPs a better understanding of the “field-to-fork” process, teaching them how crops are sown, protected from pests during growth and eventually harvested.
It was reported that MPs and farmers in attendance also discussed the EU-UK Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) deal, with talks centring on how it might impact the arable sector.
According to the NFU, the union previously highlighted “the need for sufficient transition arrangements” in the deal to allow UK farm business to adjust, particularly when it comes to EU Plant Protection Products (PPP).
NFU suggested that this would allow farmers to “use existing stocks and ensure that crops grown using these products remain legally marketable after harvest.”
The chair of NFU’s combinable crops board, Jamie Burrows recognised that it is “really difficult for the arable sector at the moment.”
“The war in the Middle East has driven up input costs, adding to an already extremely pressured time for farmers who will soon be going into harvest.
“We will continue to work closely with politicians so they better understand what they can do to support British farmers and growers and shape policies that help strengthen the resilience of our domestic food production system, so it can continue to feed the country now and into the future,” Burrows noted.
NFU
NFU’s Food and Farming Fellowship Scheme is designed to improve MPs’ understanding of UK farming food, launched in 2024 in collaboration with ABP UK, AIC, Arla Foods, Barfoots, British Egg Industry Council and Fareshare.
The head of policy and external affairs at the AIC, Ed Barker stated that the confederation was “pleased” to be working alongside the NFU on its scheme.
Barker said: “The scheme allows the arable supply chain to demonstrate to MPs the dynamics and challenges in farm inputs, and its variety of customers in food manufacturing, malting, milling, animal feed and energy sectors.
“Explaining these through the perspective of an arable family farm builds knowledge and provides a platform for further engagement with parliamentarians,” he added.