The Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA) has caught the attention of the hospitality industry, as new applications for the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) scheme have been abruptly halted. This decision, it’s fair to say has raised eyebrows, particularly among businesses focused on building sustainable supply chains through partnerships with environmentally conscious farms.
The SFI was designed to encourage farmers to adopt more sustainable practices, offering financial support for things like improved soil management and biodiversity enhancement. It’s proven quite popular, which ironically seems to be the reason for this sudden stop – the scheme’s budget, reportedly, has been fully committed, much earlier than anticipated, and without warning.
The Soil association has said: “This destructive damaging move by government seriously risks the viability of the organic sector and threatens the supply of sustainable British food. It has frozen farmers out of the opportunity to meet the rising demand for organic food, which will instead continue to be met by imports. The government is disregarding what shoppers and farmers want, alongside the need to protect nature.”
Hospitality operators who’ve made a point of sourcing from sustainable farms, will likely find this development presents a puzzle. Farms that were planning to join the SFI to implement greener methods might now find themselves unable to invest, which could tighten the supply of sustainably produced ingredients. Existing relationships with farms already in the SFI are expected to continue, but the future pipeline from those hoping to join is now less clear.
Businesses with ambitious sustainability goals might find the path ahead a little more challenging. Those existing SFI agreements, it’s safe to say, have just become more strategically significant. DEFRA has indicated a reformed SFI offer is on the horizon, with details to follow the Spending Review. It would be wise for hospitality businesses to keep a close watch on these developments, as the reformed scheme could open up new avenues for supporting sustainable farming.
Andy Cato, Wildfarmed co-founder, said: “It’s worth remembering that farmers need support because for decades they have been forced to sell food at, or below the price of producing it.
This is a huge blow to confidence that future support can be relied upon.
Money is tight & there are difficult decisions on priorities. But the farming budget is the same as London transport subsidies. Drones will not protect us if there’s no bread.”
