, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Sustainable Farming Scheme - External views
We're in Wales, though, we have loads of wind. Why do we need biomass?
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Sustainable Farming Scheme - External views
Okay. Thank you. That’s useful. Moving on to perennial energy crops, the Climate Change Committee has argued we should follow what England does in this incentive. Biomass schemes don’t have a very good press, in my view, so why are you arguing that these…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Sustainable Farming Scheme - External views
Okay. Janet, do you want to come in on this hedgerow issue?
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Sustainable Farming Scheme - External views
How much of it is to do with carbon sequestration as opposed to climate mitigation, or, indeed, biodiversity crisis?
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Sustainable Farming Scheme - External views
Thank you very much. Thank you very much for coming to see us today. The UK Climate Change Committee has recommended extending hedgerows by 20 per cent by 2035 and better management of existing hedgerows. To what extent do the sustainable farming scheme…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Sustainable Farming Scheme - Environmental organisations
Okay, but this a massive food security issue, and we aren't making the progress we need to make. So, do you think the things that you're suggesting, which are, obviously, revisiting the planning system and possibly reducing—. Why only 3 hectares? Because you…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Sustainable Farming Scheme - Environmental organisations
Okay.
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Sustainable Farming Scheme - Environmental organisations
So you still have to have 3 hectares in order to enter?
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Sustainable Farming Scheme - Environmental organisations
Okay. So, looking at small farms and horticulture more generally, the CAP just excluded anything that was under 5 hectares. So, now that the Government has said that people can enter the scheme if they can demonstrate more than 550 labour hours a year—that is…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Sustainable Farming Scheme - Environmental organisations
Thank you. Andrew, you'll be aware that Waitrose announced yesterday that they want to move away from unsustainable production to what they call regenerative production. So, the supply chain want evidence that things are sustainable or regenerative. How do…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Sustainable Farming Scheme - Environmental organisations
Okay. Obviously, we'll have to discuss that elsewhere. Can I move on?
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Sustainable Farming Scheme - Environmental organisations
Okay. So, how do we guard against the existential risk that Wales Environment Link has spoken about, which is that the greenwash brigade will simply buy up the land in order to just meet carbon obligations?
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Sustainable Farming Scheme - Environmental organisations
Thank you. Okay. So, Alex and Andrew, you were both at the WWF seminar last Wednesday in the Senedd, and, obviously, there was a lot of evidence produced about the benefits of trees, both for making farming more sustainable as well as flood management. So, I…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Sustainable Farming Scheme - Environmental organisations
I understand that. Thank you for your answer. Rhys Evans.
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Sustainable Farming Scheme - Environmental organisations
Thank you. Just to tackle the most contentious issue, or the one that's concentrated all the noise, which is the over-10-per-cent tree cover proposal, we've heard from the farming unions that some farms are simply not suitable for 10 per cent tree cover. Were…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Sustainable Farming Scheme - Environmental organisations
What's wrong with Google?
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Sustainable Farming Scheme - Environmental organisations
'Simple'? You think it's a simple route.
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Sustainable Farming Scheme - Environmental organisations
Okay, I hear that, but what about the point made by the farming unions that there are just too many of these universal actions? I have to reach for the dictionary to understand some of it. I'm not a farmer, but it doesn't pass the Daily Mirror test.
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Sustainable Farming Scheme - Environmental organisations
Yes. There is no more money, so the farming unions were indicating that there should be fewer universal actions. How could that be done without diluting the sustainable farming principles, in order to leave more money for the other optional and collaborative…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Sustainable Farming Scheme - Farming Unions
Fantastic. Gareth.
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Sustainable Farming Scheme - Farming Unions
Well, I'm talking about what we can do to mitigate it. I appreciate we can't do anything about the rain.
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Sustainable Farming Scheme - Farming Unions
Totally, but is it happening fast enough, given the weather extremes that we're experiencing, the amount of rainfall that's being dropped in one day?
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Sustainable Farming Scheme - Farming Unions
Dominic.
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Sustainable Farming Scheme - Farming Unions
Okay. There are lots of other things that are being proposed, like rotating crops, sowing different types of grasses to improve the permeability of the soil.
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Sustainable Farming Scheme - Farming Unions
You say that this has been a long-standing concern but, nevertheless, the state of our soil is causing lots of red flags to be raised about the quality of the nutrients in our soil and whether or not what we are producing has got any value as food.
