Farming’s public goods

Farmers do much more than produce food; they also provide a range of environmental services that are likely to become more important as we seek to limit climate change and environmental degradation.

As custodians of 70% of the UK's land, farmers provide a host of other 'public goods' including:

• producing safe, nutritious, and affordable food
• protecting and promoting healthy and productive soils
• maintaining and adding to the millions of tonnes of carbon stocks locked up in our soils and trees
• improving water quality
• optimising biodiversity, both above and below ground, often 'sharing' land with nature rather than competing with it
• providing climate change adaptation and resilience
• generating profits which contribute to overall economic growth
• managing landscape for social benefit
• underpinning the economic stability of rural communities

Climate change is often presented as the key environmental challenge we are facing today, with an urgent need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and reach net zero.

However, net zero is just one facet of the environment; wildlife and biodiversity, water, soil and air quality also need protecting.

• GHG emissions
  • Methane
  • Nitrous oxide
  • CO2
  • Feed sourcing and efficiency
• Carbon stocks and sequestration
• Climate adaptation

• Water quality
  • Nitrates
  • Phosphate
  • Pesticides
• Water resources
  • Plentiful clean supply
• Water flow management
• Compliance

• Habitat protection
  • Prevent biodiversity loss
  • Protect existing habitat
• Habitat creation
• Above and below ground

• Soil health
• Carbon stock protection and sequestration
• Water infiltration 
• Productivity

• Impacts on human health
  • Ammonia emissions
• Impacts on sensitive habitats
  • Ammonia deposition
• Compliance

These different environmental aspects also interact with one another. You can not look at just one in isolation as the actions you take could impact another area, often positively but not always.

For example, planting trees in the right area could store carbon and increase biodiversity – but if done wrong could replace a biodiverse habitat with a less diverse forest, and store carbon above ground but lead to soil carbon losses.

There are three pillars of sustainability: environmental, social, and economic.

Farmers need to consider all of these for a sustainable business. They need to look after their environment so that it remains viable in perpetuity.

They need to be able to make enough money to continue as a business and support the families of those working the farm. Finally, farming should provide a fulfilling occupation and support a thriving community.

This means that environmental actions need to take the other pillars into consideration as well. For example, if an action protects the environment, but doesn’t support the farm economically, then the farm won’t stay sustainable as a business – and the farmer can’t keep up the environmental actions if they go out of business.

Sometimes actions are a win-win, usually by making the farm more efficient. Other times, external financial support will be needed to make an action viable – such as support from SFI and ELMs.

Overall, farms should look for win-win, no-regrets actions first and foremost.