THE DISASTER afflicting the UK pig sector should have, and could have, been avoided – and unless the UK government gets a grip of its 'inconsistent' policies, there will be more food and farming disasters to come.

In her keynote speech to the English NFU annual conference, president Minette Batters said that conflicting UK government policies were creating unnecessary problems for farmers, and without a clear plan and vision for British farming and food production, Boris Johnson's government would sleepwalk into crisis after crisis.

"There are currently 200,000 pigs on contract backed up on farm. 40,000 healthy pigs have been culled and simply thrown away," said Ms Batters.

“This truly is an utter disgrace and a disaster for the pig industry. This is down to the government’s poorly designed change to immigration policy and what I can only say appears to be its total lack of understanding of how food production works and what it needs," she said.

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Ms Batters insisted that British farming had 'a lot to be positive about, to be proud of, and to believe in' – not least its high standards of food production. But right now, the industry was in the grip of 'completely contradictory' policies, which raised the bar for environmental standards at home but pursued trade deals which supported lower standards overseas.

“It is claiming to value domestic food production but making it difficult to find workers to harvest or process it," noted Ms Batters. " It is stating there are many export opportunities for British food but failing to prioritise the resources to open up those new markets.

“If government wants to achieve more for the environment, then there is only one solution. We need policies and investment into the new world of optimisation of agriculture. Polarised debates are getting us nowhere and they’re not allowing us to focus on the very real challenges around food supply in the future.

“Above and beyond everything, we need to all be working to the same objectives and aiming for the same outcome. There needs to be a plan. A plan which enables Britain to keep on farming and to continue to be world leaders in high quality, safe and sustainable food.”

At its agm, the ENFU launched ‘British farming: a blueprint for the future’, calling for commitment and investment from both government and retail to sell more British food at home and abroad; for the powers in the Agriculture Act to be used to enable farmers and growers to trade fairly; for a new economic model that drives investment back into the land, ensuring the tenanted sector is not disadvantaged; for an immigration policy that could be 'dialled-up and dialled-down' to respond to demand for labour; and for a properly funded Sustainable Farming Incentive.