NFU vice-president Guy Smith clashed with WWF-UK’s food policy manager Duncan Williamson at last week’s Nuffield Conference.

In a panel debate, Mr Smith commented, “We pick up some bad habits from the green NGOs who have something to sell when it comes to spreading bad news. I’ve got no issue with this but the WWF like to point to the things we haven’t got on our farms in terms of wildlife and frequently ignore what we have got. That sometimes irritates me.”

In response, Mr Williamson stressed that 60 per cent of biodiversity loss worldwide can be linked to agriculture and food systems and disagreed that it did not recognise good environmental actions by farmers. “We celebrate the good farmers, we work with farmers all over the world,” he said. “We work with farmers in East Anglia and with farmers along the River Itchen who are doing fantastic work to get the chalk streams back up to a really good level.”

Photo Credit: NFU

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