Eco-farming ditched as food prices soar

Soaring food prices are threatening to inflict widespread ecological damage on the countryside, as farmers abandon environmentally friendly schemes that have improved much of the landscape.

Government-backed environment schemes (ELS, or entry level stewardship) are having to compete with market pressures on farmers as crop values escalate. If farmers start to back out, much of the good work achieved since the schemes were introduced 21 years ago could be destroyed. The Observer can reveal that a survey by the National Farmers’ Union shows that two-thirds of farmers who signed up to the schemes failed to renew them when contracts expired. They cited high commodity prices as well as ‘disenchantment’ with the way the schemes were now run.


At the most basic level, the schemes pay farmers