Sustainable Farming Incentive: Organic Food

(asked on 28th June 2022) - View Source

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent discussions he has had with representatives of the organic food sector on the Sustainable Farming Incentive's organic standard.


Answered by
Victoria Prentis Portrait
Victoria Prentis
Attorney General
This question was answered on 7th July 2022

The Government is committed to a co-design process throughout the development of the Sustainable Farming Incentive for all proposed standards. Individual standards are being created and refined through development and practitioner groups which bring in knowledge from industry experts, farmers and other wider technical expertise in line with our wider delivery plans and timescales.

The Government recognise the benefits that organic farming can offer to the wider environment and in December 2021 confirmed that an organic standard is currently being considered as part of the development of the Sustainable Farming Incentive, with an indicative roll out date of 2025. As the Farming Minister, I met with representatives of the organic sector in November 2021 to discuss the Government’s intention to include this organic standard. In addition, the Secretary of State recently attended Groundswell, the regenerative agriculture show, where he gave a speech on the launch of the Sustainable Farming Incentive scheme as well as taking part in two question and answer panel sessions.

Defra will engage with organic stakeholder representatives as part of the development of the organic standard. Open dialogue and cross-sector collation of information will continue to help to shape its future direction. We will only release standards into the live service when we are confident in their design and our ability to successfully deliver the service.

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