Recommendation 15

HM Government · verbatim extract Accepted

Our forthcoming Government Food Strategy will set out our ambition and priorities for a food system that will deliver for people, nature and climate. In doing so it will support our farmers to continue to produce the high-quality, high-welfare produce for which they are renowned. As part of this, Defra is working with relevant departments across Government to explore options to reduce carbon emissions from food production, incentivise land use change to sequester more carbon and restore nature, and preserve natural resources. We will seek to acknowledge the particular value of natural capital to food security through the strategy. reward farmers for providing public goods that improve and protect the environment. We are introducing three environmental land management schemes: The Sustainable Farming Incentive, Local Nature Recovery and Landscape Recovery. Together, these schemes are intended to provide a powerful vehicle for achieving the goals of the 25 Year Environment Plan and our commitment to net zero emissions by 2050, while supporting our rural economy. Further detail on our approach to supporting and enhancing biodiversity in England, including through our reform of agricultural subsidies, is set out in our response to the Committee’s first report ‘Biodiversity in the UK: Bloom or Bust’.6