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The essential nature of nature-friendly farming

It’s Nature Friendly Farming week and a moment to register the huge importance of a nature transition in farming. It’s critical for our climate, water and food. Vicki Hird looks at the facts, as well as policies we need to get this right.

We can and do see a good farming future, based on nature delivering what is needed to produce great, diverse, health, and affordable food. 

A new report from nature-friendly farmers outlines just how possible and essential is it. But instead, for a minute, imagine a different future. A future with a hugely changed climate, with droughts and floods happening far faster and more frequently. 

Imagine a UK farmed landscape where we have decided to drop all regulations and all support for nature and climate resilient farming – to go for the cheapest production of the cheapest commodities. 

Rivers and soils are polluted and degraded. Hedgerows and farm trees disappear to make more space for crops used for feed, fuel and processed food. All livestock are housed in industrial systems, and lakes of toxic sludge are dumped in rivers and seas. Uniform landscapes and cheap raw materials for processed food are the result. The public resign themselves to never tasting fresh food or seeing a skylark again. 

I’ll stop there. This silent, doomsday scenario is not what is happening, thankfully. Many farmers are doing the opposite. 

A close-up of a red-tailed bumblebee perched on a plant. The bumblebee has a fuzzy body with black and yellow stripes, and its legs are gripping the spike, hairy stem of a plant

Red-tailed bumblebee © Vaughn Matthews

They are investing in nature-friendly farming, restoring soil health and organisms, creating field boundaries full of insects and birds and messy plant diversity. Agroforestry in fields and pastures is delivering animal fodder and shelter, nuts and fruit and water and soil retention. 

Farmers are combining animals with plant production to use the manure for fertility. They’re farming more crops in a rotation, which means less room for pests and diseases to run rampant and far more room for beneficial insects. 

It’s great to see farmers embracing these tools, and organic farmers have been doing much of this for some time.  It’s heartening to see organic farming growing, albeit from a small base, in new Defra data. But it’s far from enough to deliver climate adapted, nature-restoring farmland. Our 2030 vision is for all farmers to be agroecological or in transition. 

New environmental farming schemes are beginning to sow the seeds of recovery whilst ensuring farmers are rewarded for delivering public goods which the market can’t or won’t pay for. But there’s not enough budget. 


And whilst private markets for nature could help, they are not necessarily future proof – what happens when there’s a market downturn and company boards pull the plug on funding nature or carbon offsets? They need underpinning with robust regulation. 

So, progress is being made. But in Wales, the risks to this transition are very real. Delays to the Sustainable Farming Scheme, combined with a lack of clear direction from the new Welsh Government, are putting that progress under pressure. Years of work have gone into designing a scheme that balances universal, optional and collaborative action, while giving Welsh farmers the secure income they need to deliver for nature and climate. 

Without stronger political leadership, that ambition could still be weakened. The real risk is that the more ambitious parts of the scheme are delayed, while funding is channelled into the universal tier alone. That may help maintain baseline good practice, but it will not deliver the uplift needed for nature recovery or climate action. In effect, it risks recreating the Basic Payment Scheme by the back door.

And the odds are staked against this nature-friendly farm transition if we don’t get these rewards, and the advice available, right. We also need the buyers at the farm gate regulated. Despite being aware of risks to their supply, food markets are still focused on driving farmgate prices to the lowest they can get away with globally. 

None of this is ‘a nice to have’. It is an essential requirement for future proofing our food system against the climate and global geopolitical challenges ahead. 

The leak of a 2024 government sponsored report on the Status of Defra’s critical systems to 2030 and beyond exposed by The Times confirmed that they know what we know: “environmental policies were insufficient to reverse the decline of the soils, pollinators, water courses and habitats on which farmers depended”. 

Investing in the ecosystems and nature vital for food production is increasingly getting the attention it deserves. But more is needed. 
 

How you can help
 

  • Find your local farm shop. You could ask how their food is produced and whether it’s farmed in a nature-friendly way. Or simply show your support to a local nature-friendly farmer online.
  • Explore  events happening near you and experience nature-friendly farming firsthand. And support your local Wildlife Trust in its work with local farmers.
  • Read the latest Nature Friendly Farmers Network report which sets out the evidence for why nature-friendly farming is the right approach for ensuring the long-term viability and resilience of farm businesses. It argues that putting nature, soil health and water management at the heart of farming is essential for future food security and economic stability.

As Nature Friendly Farming Network CEO Martin Lines said: “The alarm bells are ringing ever louder. The research in this report shows the current farming model is not delivering for farm profitability or the environment. If we continue to degrade national assets, the consequences for farming will be severe. Business as usual is not an option.”

We all as citizens and consumers can help.

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