The NFU will warn today that the government risks wasting the potential of British farming by 'sleepwalking into more and more crises'.
In her keynote speech to the union's annual conference, president Minette Batters will call for new efforts to help avert 'unnecessary crises', such as the current disaster facing the pig sector.
There are currently 200,000 pigs on contract backed up on farm, with 40,000 healthy pigs having been culled due to the crisis.
“This truly is an utter disgrace and a disaster for the pig industry," Mrs Batters will tell the conference on Tuesday (22 February).
"This is down to the government’s poorly designed change to immigration policy and what I can only say appears to be its total lack of understanding of how food production works and what it needs."
In her speech, she will call for a new plan that "pre-empts crises, rather than repeatedly runs into them".
"The current situation in the pig sector should have, and could have, been avoided," Mrs Batters will say.
“But situations like this make me more and more determined to shape a new and better future for not only how we produce our food but how we achieve a fair return for it."
She will also use the conference to call for certainty in government policy that can capitalise on British farming’s high standards of food production and net zero ambition.
And the NFU president will also use her platform to criticise the government for having 'completely contradictory policies'.
"It is raising the bar for environmental standards at home but pursuing trade deals which support lower standards overseas," Mrs Batters will say.
“It is claiming to value domestic food production but making it difficult to find workers to harvest or process it."
"It is stating there are many export opportunities for British food but failing to prioritise the resources to open up those new markets."
She will add: “If government wants to achieve more for the environment, then there is only one solution. We need policies and investment into the new world optimisation of agriculture.
"Polarised debates are getting us nowhere and they’re not allowing us to focus on the very real challenges around food supply in the future."
The NFU will also launch a new report ‘British farming: a blueprint for the future’ to highlight five key areas the government, supply chain and farmers needs to prioritise:
• Commitment and investment from both government and retail to sell more British food at home and abroad
• Using the powers in the Agriculture Act to enable farmers and growers to trade fairly
• A new economic model that drives investment back into the land, ensuring the tenanted sector is not disadvantaged
• A dial-up, dial-down immigration policy
• Future farm policy with a properly funded Sustainable Farming Incentive
