Red tractor assurance today announces that it is dropping its greener farms commitment module (gfc), following feedback from its members.

The module was developed to help farmers, processors and retailers meet the growing need for all to demonstrate sustainability, but in a single, practical and consistent way.

However, having taken on board the concerns about the impact the GFC would have on many farmers across the UK, the AFS Board of Red Tractor have today agreed they will discontinue the module.

Christine Tacon, Chair of Red Tractor, said that while the module had been conceived with the best of intentions, errors had been made.

“We take responsibility for those issues and are sorry. We hope that by dropping the module, we can close the door on this chapter and move forward.”

“We will only be involved in future environmental standards when all constituencies across the UK food and farming chain, by sector, ask us to and with full consultation.”

Red Tractor’s AFS Board also accepted the conclusions of the Campbell Tickell review of Red Tractor’s Governance and confirmed its commitment to implement all the recommendations.

Christine continued: “Whilst the review found that ‘Red Tractor governance is sound’, it also sent a clear message about the frustration farmers are feeling. We will act now to improve our communications to farmers, including the transparency of our operations, purpose and benefits and we will strengthen our stakeholder engagement.”

“We will listen more closely to our farmers, for example, Red Tractor has previously found that transparency, audit burden and value are farmers’ top concerns with Red Tractor. Significant efforts are already underway to tackle these, which you will hear more about in the next few months.”

 

 Assured Food Standards

 

Also:

Red Tractor told Greener Farms Commitment should be ‘discontinued’

Red Tractor suspends its Greener Farms Commitment

Red Tractor should drop its controversial Greener Farms Commitment (GFC) module and instead adopt a more transparent approach which works better for farmers, according to UK farming unions and levy body AHDB.

Issuing a joint response today (March 5) following the findings of the independent review into governance at Red Tractor by Campbell Tickell, the organisations – which make up a section of Red Tractor’s ownership body – said they ‘strongly recommended’ that the GFC development was ‘discontinued’.

The statement continued: “It is for the Assured Farm Standards (AFS) Board to consider and agree in what form, and when, it should commission work on sustainability standards. We recommend that any development must evidently and transparently work with all constituencies across the food and farming supply chain, learning from the distinctions across UK agriculture and horticulture, and particularly sectors with clear demand.”

 

Jane Thynne | Farmers Guardian

AHDB has said it will no longer provide its annual funding into Red Tractor as it was now a ‘financially established and self-sustaining’ body’.

The levy body said it agreed to put levy funding into Red Tractor following an industry consultation in 2008, which backed the development of a comprehensive food quality assurance scheme to consolidate farm audits and the development of a single label as the manifestation of trusted production standards.

It comes as levy payers raise concerns around grain imports and assurance and whether the controls in place for imported grain provide the same levels of assurance.

This decision has taken effect from this financial year however Red Tractor has been informed future funding could be provided if specific projects were identified that would be to the benefit of levy payers.

AHDB chair Nicholas Saphir said: “It remains AHDB’s clear position that farm assurance is necessary and important to farming success, as a consumer benchmark, or ‘kite mark’, denoting safety, quality and provenance and/or in helping farmers achieve premium prices where food is produced to particular standards which customers and consumers attach additional value.

“Red Tractor is now well established and it no longer requires AHDB’s basic annual financial support,” he said.

 

 

By Alex Black / Farmers Guardian