BMR News updates

In a joint statement, leaders from the UK’s four main farming unions – National Farmers’ Union, NFU Cymru, NFU Scotland and the Ulster Farmers’ Union – said farmers are currently facing “significant uncertainty” due to the impact of geopolitical tensions, including the current war in Iran, which continue to disrupt the cost and availability of key inputs such as red diesel and fertiliser.

The unions warned that “farm businesses across the UK are facing increasing pressure as a result of global events beyond their control” and calling for coordinated action from governments across the UK to address the growing risks.

They are seeking greater transparency in pricing, closer monitoring of supply chains and stronger support to improve resilience within the agricultural sector. In response to mounting concerns, the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) has announced it will publish weekly fertiliser price updates.

While they welcomed moves by regulators to increase monitoring, the unions emphasised that “more must be done to ensure fairness, transparency and accountability”.

Media speculation about how the Iran war is impacting food production has been widespread with the main focus on the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, through which 20% of the world’s oil and gas and about one third of global seaborne trade in fertilisers travel.

The disruption to the gas supply – a key component in fertiliser manufacture – has already led to fertiliser plant closures in India, Bangladesh and Pakistan.

But some critics argue that the war will simply benefit big businesses as a recent article from Greenpeace made clear: “Expect the term ‘food security’ to be hollowed out and weaponised. Large-scale industrial players are already positioning themselves as the only thing standing between the public and empty shelves.”

Greenpeace claims that if we want to have true independence over food security then “we have to stop propping up chemical-addicted industrial farming. Local, ecological farming is the only real path to food sovereignty. By working with nature to fix nutrients in the soil naturally, farmers can break the cycle of dependence.”

Lorna Scott, NFU Scotland Senior Policy Manager, Climate, Land and Business agrees that rising input costs and global instability have highlighted the risks of reliance on imported inputs, while expectations around climate and nature continue to grow but says that “this isn’t a simple choice between “conventional” and “ecological” farming”.

“Scottish agriculture already has a strong sustainability story,” adds Scott, “Farmers are continuing to improve efficiency, adopt new technologies and improve resilience through efficient use of inputs and management practices.

“A wholesale shift away from inputs, however, would bring real challenges. In most cases, it would reduce output and increase reliance on imports, often from countries with lower standards, which risks undermining both food security and overall sustainability. The key is getting the balance right.”

In an article posted on the Sustainable Food Trust website Megan Perry, Head of Policy, and Robert Barbour, Senior Researcher, point out that “term ‘resilience’ is also being bandied around by the government and farming sector, but what does this mean? It does not appear to mean a big shift away from input-heavy approaches that dominate today, given the focus on continuing to achieve current levels of production. Business as usual and tweaking rather than transforming appears to be the current thinking. But we need much more radical policies.

“If the government created support that took a whole farm approach, integrating nature and food production through agroecological farming methods, and promoted healthier diets aligned with what the UK can sustainably produce, we could move away from input-heavy agriculture, reducing our reliance on imports and increasing the resilience of domestic production to extreme weather.”