The EU has committed to look again at its two flagship sustainable food policies, amid concerns the Russian invasion of Ukraine will hit supplies.
The 51AV视频to Fork Strategy and the Biodiversity Strategy contain targets to reduce the use of pesticides by 50 per cent, fertiliser by 20 per cent and sales of antimicrobials for farmed animals by 50 per cent by 2030.
But now Agriculture Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski has said they may be revisited in light of the new potential threat to food security, with the EU importing wheat, oilseed and animal feed from Ukraine, as well as fertiliser from Russia.
His comments prompted calls for the Government in the UK to consider the issue in domestic policy making.
Tenant Farmers Association chief executive George Dunn said: 鈥淚t seems the modern way to do Government, at least in the UK, is to wait for the car crash to happen before anybody intervenes, rather than planning ahead strategically.
鈥淚 have lost count of the number of times I have been asked by civil servants to produce evidence that problems are occurring rather than looking at the extent of the risk of problems occurring in the future and doing something to mitigate those risks.
鈥淲e cannot go on relying upon parts of the world which are at best unfriendly towards us and at worse hostile for our food and energy security.鈥�
Industry is still awaiting a White Paper from the Government following Henry Dimbleby鈥檚 Food Strategy report.
Needed
鈥淭here has never been a time since the Second World War when a food strategy was more needed than now,鈥� said Mr Dunn.
The strategy will come after Defra鈥檚 first Food Security Report was published in December last year.
Ministers are legally obliged to carry out these reviews once every three years under the terms of the Agriculture Act.
But the latest document did not mention war or conflict, despite the fact that Russia had amassed 110,000 troops and heavy weaponry on the Ukrainian border at the time it was published.
