COP26 – how Welsh farming can meet the climate challenge

At the virtual Royal Welsh Show, the Farmers’ Union of Wales (FUW) hosted a webinar to explore how food production and looking after the environment can and do go hand in hand.

The event, chaired by FUW deputy president Ian Rickman, heard from FUW head of policy Dr Nick Fenwick; Laura Ryan from the Global Meat Alliance; Hybu Cig Cymru-Meat Promotion Wales industry development and relations manager, John Richards; Dairy UK chief executive Dr Judith Bryans and Snowdonia beef and sheep farmers FUW president Glyn Roberts and his daughter Beca Glyn.

FUW head of policy Dr Nick Fenwick told the audience: “It’s worth noting how unique Wales is in terms of the predominance of less favoured area land and how little of our land is used for arable crops, which is due to the quality of our land and what has made economic sense.”

Dr Fenwick highlighted significant changes in livestock numbers, with sheep numbers having risen from around four million in the middle of the 20th century to around 12 million in the late 1990s, before falling back to the current level of around 10 million or so.

Welsh cattle numbers had fallen from around 1.6 million in the mid-1970s to around 1.1 million today, while pig numbers had reduced dramatically from a peak of around 300,000 in the 1960s to just a few tens of thousands today.

“There has been the narrative for decades that the increase in sheep numbers has happened in mountainous regions and that was true for some areas at some times. But if you look at the figures, it’s actually a gross simplification of what’s happened.

"In vast areas of Wales, sheep numbers in the uplands are now far lower than they were about 100 years ago, for example in the Elan valley estate or on Pumlumon,” said Dr Fenwick.

He highlighted that there was a major reduction in the area of Welsh land used for growing arable crops during the past 150 years, with data showing significant increases in livestock numbers in non-mountainous regions of Wales as arable land was moved over to grass production.

For example, between 1867 and 2017 the area of Wales on which crops were grown fell from around 300,000 hectares to just 93,000 hectares – a two thirds reduction.

“However, we have also seen a big increase in woodland in Wales. Since 1905, the area of Welsh woodland has increased by around 250 per cent. That increase however has been concentrated in certain areas, with devastating environmental, social and economic impacts,” he told the audience.

Today many different proposals have been put forward by political parties to increase woodland in Wales. Plaid Cymru wants to see the total woodland area increased to over 600,000 hectares by 2050, Welsh Labour to almost 500,000 hectares and the Conservative Party would like to see woodlands extend to around 450,000 hectares based on typical tree planting densities.

“That pressure of course is primarily coming from the conversation around climate change. We of course agree with measures to mitigate climate change, the question is how you do that. As an industry we have to be realistic and make sure that it’s the right tree in the right place,” he said.

Further challenges include trade deals, proposed or agreed, with Australia, New Zealand and Canada, a loss of direct farm support and a public goods scheme that is purely environmentally-focused.

Laura Ryan from the Global Meat Alliance pointed to other problems.

“We have a fragmented global meat industry. We all want to represent our farmers and growers but while we’ve been busy doing that, the anti-meat lobby has become very well coordinated. They have a single global narrative that has left the meat industry really wanting,” she said.

“We have an urban focussed UK Government, we see that in the press on a regular basis. We have to make sure that we’re coming together with other governments around the world who are more focussed on livestock production."

Helping the red meat sector in Wales address the sustainability challenges is Hybu Cig Cymru-Meat Promotion Wales (HCC), which last year launched the ‘The Welsh Way’ report.

HCC’s industry development and relations manager, John Richards, said: “We get caught in this trap when people start talking about sustainability they start talking about greenhouse gasses straight away. Sustainability is much more than that.

"Agricultural sustainability, especially in rural areas, should be associated with economic sustainability. If a farm business isn’t sustainable it’s not profitable. It needs to be profitable if it’s going to be sustainable.

“There is also the cultural importance of agriculture – the language, the communities. Any rural community thrives when there’s a vibrant red meat and agricultural sector. There is a danger that when we only focus on one element we end up with unforeseen outcomes.”

The dairy industry has also been making significant improvements in its effort to tackle climate change and provide sustainable, nutritious food according to Dairy UK chief executive Dr Judith Bryans

“The global dairy sector has been really active within the preparatory work for the United Nations Food Systems Summit and also the work that has been done in the run-up to COP26. Our aim has been to put forward the dairy story to inform and educate and to show what our role is in a sustainable future,” she said.

Dr Bryans told the audience that globally the billion strong dairy farmers take care of around 360 million cows and 20 per cent of the world’s agricultural land.

“Much of that land could not be used to grow food for human consumption. But our dairy cows can eat on that land and they can transform things that are inedible for human beings into highly nutritious products like milk," she said.

"In addition, our milk and dairy products rank amongst the top five traded agricultural commodities by value and volume, benefitting national and local economies.”

The audience further heard that over 600 million people live on dairy farms globally, helping to support rural economies and in a world where gender equality still needs a lot of work, 37 million dairy farms worldwide are headed by women.

Concluding the webinar and outlining the work being done at their home farm, Dylasau Uchaf, were FUW president Glyn Roberts and his daughter Beca Glyn.

They have been working with Bangor University and HCC on a carbon audit to establish where the business is doing well and where there is room for improvement when it comes to reducing carbon emissions.

The responsibility of achieving better practices, producing sustainable food and looking after the environment, Beca said, remains with the farmer.

“Every farm has the responsibility to know their carbon footprint and then work to reduce it," she said.

"We’ve identified our carbon footprint so we know what's working well and what we need to work at to improve it. We’ve got a lot more positives in the agricultural industry than there are negatives. But we need to change, and a lot of farms will need to change to be more efficient when it comes to livestock farming and utilising grass.”