Farmers vs The Weather: Up for Tackling Climate Change?
Ask any farmer what their chief pre-occupations are and they’ll most likely mention the weather, costs, prices and bureaucracy. But will they mention climate change and if so will they be more concerned about the impact of climate change or the impact of measures justified by this particular ‘emergency?’
In the second half of 2023 we surveyed 821 farmers, most of whom were in the UK. This work, conducted on behalf of specialist agri-business communications consultancy RDP, in association with The Farmers Forum confirmed the main pre-occupations listed above. So, we might ask, where does the climate ‘emergency’ fit in all this. Do farmers care about climate change?
“My impression”, comments Angus Chalmers, MD at RDP “is that farmers have to react to and adapt their business decisions, no matter what the weather. It has such an enormous impact on their livelihoods. They invest to counteract the weather, to create more robust businesses – but do they think of climate change when they are doing this. That’s a moot point, they are focussed on producing the food we need.”
In the first half of our survey fieldwork we asked farmers an open question:
“What are the main farming related issues or challenges you have faced in the last 12 months?”
The 348 responses (from 490 farmers) are illustrated in the word cloud below. Prices and costs, and therefore the farmers ability to make a living, dominated. The survey suggests farmers are much more concerned about the weather than they are about climate change.
There were just five mentions of the phrase climate change compared to 109 mentions of the word weather, 23 drought or dry spells and 15 of rain reflecting the old adage that if there isn’t too much rain, there’s too little rain. There were seven additional mentions of the word ‘climate’ and one for ‘extreme weather.’
Comments relating to costs and prices dominated (54% writing something about either of these). Examples included:
- “Rising input costs and falling grain prices”
- “Input costs, feed, fertiliser, fuel”
- “Rising costs. Government legislation, rules and regulations, especially pertaining to slurry and fertiliser.”
This suggests to me that the climate emergency is not at the top of farmers agendas; making a living in difficult and variable conditions is.
For the second half of the survey fieldwork we gave farmers a list of ten challenges based on those the first group of farmers had written in. 384 farmers answered these question. Once again price and costs dominated, followed by weather and legislation:
- The top two concerns related to ‘Increased input costs’ (82%) and ‘Getting a fair price for what you produce’ (76%).
- Just under half selected ‘Normal variations in weather conditions’ (45%), only 22% selecting ‘Problems associated with changes in the weather due to climate change.’ This put climate change in 8th position narrowly ahead of ‘Brexit’ (21%) and ‘Disease/Pest Control (18%).’
- Problems associated with legislation or other measures introduced to tackle climate change’ was selected by (31%). ‘Other legislation or actions taken by DEFRA/the government’ ranked even higher (42%).
- Availability/cost of land was a challenge for 29%, Availability of Labour for 27%.
It is clear that farmers, like all small business people, want to make a living. They are not here to save the planet; they are here to feed us. Given their integral relationship with nature and the weather, why aren’t farmers more concerned about climate change?
Whilst the scientific consensus is that climate change is real and catastrophic a significant number of experts remain neutral on the subject and a small minority seek to challenge the consensus. Out on the farm, the consensus seems to be that ‘office based officialdom’ is out of touch with the everyday reality of farming, and in the words of a Lincolnshire campaigner “DEFRA could do with a few more people working for it who have farming in their blood.” She has been campaigning against using prime agricultural land for solar panels. Farmers clearly suffer from an excess of ‘official interventionism,’ which, when it includes projections by the likes of Professor Neil Ferguson can prove catastrophic.
Farmers are practical people. They are used to variations in the weather and accept that there is little that they can do about it. Whether their experiences of the weather support the climate emergency prognosis is debatable. The tractor in the photo (over 30 years old and kept running) exemplifies the gap between the everyday challenges of running a business on tight margins and inconsistent interventions in relation to fuel. Diesel, which provides more torque and is used in the majority of farm vehicles, was once thought to be ‘good.’ Now it is thought to be ‘bad.’ In the meantime the farmer has done his bit for the environment by keeping his old tractor going. He laughed at the thought of buying an electric tractor.
Our survey and other work suggests that there is a serious disconnect between policy makers and those who work to put food on our plates. Elsewhere in Europe this disconnect has resulted in major protests by farmers; hopefully we can avoid that here and help our farmers feed us.
Nigel Jacklin is a statistician and market researcher. He is an Independent Network Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Bexhill and Battle, a semi-rural constituency.
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