HSBC ‘Investing in the Future’ Forums tackle climate change, biofuels and whether it pays to be green
Peter Kendall, President of the NFU will be opening a series of three HSBC 'Investing in the Future' Forums at the Cereals Event on the 13th and 14th June 2007. Mr Kendall will debate whether a carbon neutral footprint is possible for UK arable farmers and if so, how it might be delivered.
UK farming is up for the challenge of a neutral carbon footprint; however the industry must lead a constructive, consumer-based debate on the use of science to help farming reduce its carbon footprint. In our rush to prove our ability to reduce the carbon footprint, the government must not regulate until we really know what best practise is, highlighting the need for more targeted research and development spend," says Mr Kendall.
"We must also ensure that government and regulators do not restrict the production of essential food and fuel sources, or that we export our problems to other countries that have less of a focus on greenhouse emissions than we have."
Mr Kendall will use the forum to warn of the temptation to rush into managing the carbon footprint in isolation, but to adopt a holistic approach to the whole farm programme. Peter Kendall will present the carbon debate at 10am on the HSBC stand (no 608) on the 13th June and Dr Jonathan Scurlock, the NFU's Chief Adviser, Renewable Energy and Non-Food Crops will present the same debate at 10am on the 14th June on the HSBC's stand.
Food versus Fuel Forum
Closely followed in time and topic, the second HSBC Forum will be at 11am on both days of the Event and will probe balancing the competition between food and fuel production. The speakers Graham Lacey from Centaur Grain and Richard Whitlock of Frontier are actively engaged in the heart of this complicated debate.
"If you had asked most UK farmers what they really needed a couple of years ago then prices better than £70 for feed wheat would have been top of many lists. Now there is a new optimism and better returns seem almost inevitable," says Graham Lacey, Commercial Director of Centaur Grain.
"Not only have the global grain and oilseeds market improved due to low stocks, new demand, variable supply and weather concerns, but there are also many potential 'bio-projects' in the UK for ethanol, biodiesel and power," says Mr Lacey. "With so much choice it may seem that buyers will be falling over themselves to source UK grain and oilseeds but this may not be the case if UK crops prove uncompetitive compared to other feedstock for biofuels. It may result in very limited increases in domestic grain and oilseeds consumption."
Richard Whitlock of Frontier Agriculture will highlight the challenges that need to be met if British agriculture is to successfully supply the feedstock for UK based biofuels factories. "British Government and the Opposition parties support free trade; we have to be aware of and manage the real risk of imported biofuels from say Brazil, undermining our domestic competitiveness," says Mr Whitlock.
"There is no existing price correlation between feedstock prices and fuel prices. If wheat prices go up and fuel prices go down, who is going to carry the risk? New and emerging markets are always more challenging than the established ones, but I believe British farming is up for the challenge to do its bit towards creating a UK renewable fuels industry and reducing green house gas emissions."
Does it Pay to be Green?
The third HSBC Forum will engage speakers Caroline Drummond of LEAF and Guys Smith on the question 'Does it pay to be Green?' This Forum will run on both days of the Cereals Event at 2.30pm.
"The environmental agenda is up for grabs and represents a series of threats and opportunities for British arable farmers," says Guy Smith. "Green taxes on our inputs are a good example of the threat and new markets for bio-fuels are a clear opportunity. Similarly cross compliance and ELS can be seen either as a hindrance to efficient production or a relatively painless way to secure support payments.
"What we mustn't do, as farmers, is stand by and let other interest groups grab that green agenda for themselves. Much of this challenge boils down to communication. Farmers will now be expected to deliver environmental goods. The key to this is being on the front foot explaining how as an industry we do deliver on the environmental agenda."
Caroline Drummond says that "there are two main areas that the ELS/HLS schemes need to encourage – these are diversity and flexibility. The industry has some very big, inevitable challenges to face like water availability, climate change and meeting the protein requirements for a growing world population. Within the context of these challenges, we need to be very sure that as an industry we can deliver quality products in harmony with a quality environment, and we need to be more measured in achieving this.
"Given the context of LEAF's work to date, we welcome the opportunity of supporting farmers for improving environmental features on-farm. But it's all a question of balance. We need to give time to understand the changes that have resulted from ELS/HLS, before any decisions are made to raise the requirements.
"The long-term focus needs to internalise the cost of the environmental value delivered by farmers into the price paid by consumers. This involves highly complex market mechanisms, but it is nonetheless of paramount importance."
The HSBC 'Investing the Future' Forums are free of charge to all Cereals Event Visitors.
