Government Must Back Nature-Friendly Farming

The event called for urgent action to fix Britain’s broken food system and increase support for high-welfare, nature-friendly farmers.

The report outlines opportunities for the government to help more UK farmers adopt sustainable practices that benefit farmers, animals, and the climate.

Read the report

Read the report summary

Right now, British farmers face tough competition and limited support. Existing funding for nature-friendly farming is often too restrictive, creating unnecessary hurdles. For example, World Animal Protection’s analysis of grants for planting trees to house animals found that funding guidance typically focuses on single species, like cows, excluding other animals like pigs and chickens. Simple changes to these policies, such as making them inclusive of all species, would open up opportunities for more farmers to benefit and farm more sustainably.

The event brought together farmers already leading the way in nature-friendly practices. David Carruth from Scotland’s Brodoclea Woodland Farm and Annie Rayner from Shropshire’s Planton Farm both house their animals under trees, allowing them space to forage, play and express natural behaviours. At Brodoclea Farm, 120 woolly pigs, including piglets, thrive in their woodland environment, while Planton Farm’s 250 chickens enjoy scratching and pecking at weeds and seeds.

This method of farming has brought clear benefits including healthier animals needing fewer vet visits and dramatically reduced feed costs. Animal feed usually makes up 60 to 70% of costs on an animal farm, but with access to natural food sources in their environment, these costs are slashed.

This stands in significant contrast to industrial farming models that rely on imported soy-based feed, often linked to global deforestation. Despite this, industrial farms are on the rise in the UK. World Animal Protection’s ‘Confined in Cruelty’ report showed a 13% increase in UK factory farms over the past five years, a trend expected to continue without intervention.

Supporting nature-friendly farming offers a sustainable alternative, but farmers urgently need more government support to grow these practices and build a sustainable UK food system.

Lindsay Duncan, UK Farming Campaigns Manager at World Animal Protection, said:

It’s time for the government to recognise the true cost of farming. Instead of backing cruel factory farms reliant on imported soy feed and providing awful lives for animals, we must prioritise supporting farmers working to benefit the climate, biodiversity, and animal welfare.

We urge the government to review its existing agricultural policy and pivot funding streams to help more farmers adopt nature-friendly practices. This is a crucial step toward fixing our broken food system.