Red Tractor has announced that it is dropping its controversial Greener Farms Commitment module (GFC) following backlash from the industry.
The Assured Food Standards board of Red Tractor has today (22 March) agreed it will discontinue the GFC, first announced in October last year.
Since then the farming industry, including the UK's farming unions and AHDB, have called on Red Tractor to drop the voluntary, bolt-on module.
They recently warned that any resumption of work on it would be 'extremely damaging' to Red Tractor’s reputation.
Farm leaders said that more granular, technical and practical elements of the GFC should have been consulted on more widely with the industry before it was unveiled.
Fears were raised that the GFC would slowly evolve into a requirement for market access and would mean farmers footing the bill for putting in place sustainability measures on behalf of retailers.
Many also raised worries that the green module would eventually turned mandatory, in turn increasing farmers' costs.
Christine Tacon, chair of Red Tractor, said today 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," she said. "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.”
She said Red Tractor had also accepted the conclusions of the Campbell Tickell review of the body's governance, confirming its commitment to implement all the recommendations.
Ms Tacon 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.”
