Amid economic uncertainty we should be doubling down on domestic production, especially in farming.
Chris Worrall is a housing columnist for LFF. He is on the Executive Committee of the Labour Housing Group, Co-Host of the Priced Out Podcast, and Chair of the Local Government and Housing Member Policy Group of the Fabian Society.
While Britain finds itself caught in the crosshairs of escalating global trade wars – facing new tariffs from the United States and navigating complex post-Brexit trade dynamics with the European Union, amid grave economic uncertainty, we should be doubling down on domestic production, especially in farming. However, instead of bolstering British agriculture to shield ourselves from volatile global markets, our political class and local councils are doing the exact opposite: strangling investment, blocking innovation and pandering to anti-growth NIMBYs.
Nowhere is this more shameful than in Norfolk, where plans for modern, efficient farms — proposals that would have improved animal welfare, bolstered food security, and lowered food prices — were thrown out by a blinkered council and cheered on by Labour’s own anti-growth MP, Terry Jermy.
Jermy warns that the industrialisation of UK farming would have an adverse impact on the local environment, including on wildlife, as well as causing climate change, water and air pollution.
Let me be blunt: this kind of petty, populist grandstanding is exactly why Britain struggles to feed itself. It’s why we still import nearly half our food. It’s why British farmers are demoralised and disinvested — because instead of being backed, they’re being blocked.
The Facts: UK Self-Sufficiency Is in Freefall
According to the NFU, UK self-sufficiency in food production now languishes at just 62% — a number that continues to drop. In pork, the situation is even worse. DEFRA data shows that UK production to supply ratios of both pork (62%) and poultry (82%) is in decline, meaning we are becoming ever more reliant on imports. Much of it from EU countries with lower animal welfare standards and a higher risk of disease.
In other words: we reject British farms trying to do things right — then turn around and import meat from countries doing it worse.
Rejected Farms, Rejected Common Sense
The Norfolk “megafarm” proposals weren’t crude, cruel factories. These were 21st-century agricultural investments — cleaner, more efficient, and designed to improve animal welfare and reduce environmental impact. They included innovations in manure management, lower transport emissions, better feed systems, and localised supply chains.
Yet despite this, the schemes were smacked down by West Norfolk Council — celebrated by Labour MP Terry Jermy, who has made a career out of posing as a champion of the countryside while doing everything in his power to sabotage rural investment.
His rhetoric about “casting doubt” on Labour’s commitment to farming isn’t just weak — it’s hypocrisy in action. He had a chance to stand with farmers. Instead, he stood with the pitchfork-waving anti-growth mob. Not to mention even having the gall to attack plans for solar farms as a risk to undermining the country’s food security, all the while simultaneously opposing the expansion of a 60 year old farm that would have improved self-sufficiency while increasing higher welfare standards.
It was a decision mired in the old adage of classic NIMBYism. Eco-warrior climate campaigners from Sustain railed against the “extractive system of food production that poses a serious threat to human health”. Jake White from WWF described it as an “unsustainable megaform”, hailing the rejection as a “well-deserved win”. NIMBY MP Jermy – called it a “victory for local people and the environment”. All in all a sad day for growth.
Cranswick’s application was refused because it allegedly failed to demonstrate the development “would not result in significant adverse effects on protected sites”. This all despite it’s main objective being to produce more British food to higher welfare standards through the redevelopment of existing farms.
The scheme had faced 15,000 objections, 90 per cent of which came from outside the local area. Objections came from as far as Rome, Lisbon, Calgary and California. A gold-plated example of the insanity of embedded in the British planning consultation system.
Disease Is a Real Threat — And NIMBYs Are Making It Worse
Across Europe, African Swine Fever (ASF) continues to spread, with outbreaks in Italy, Germany, and Eastern Europe hammering local herds and disrupting trade. Foot-and-mouth disease has seen a resurgence, with parts of Asia and Africa on high alert. An issue made ever more prescient with the UK government recently banning personal meat imports to protect British farmers.
If a major outbreak were to hit the UK again — like in 2001, when 6 million animals were slaughtered and the economy lost £8 billion — the last thing we’d want is an over-reliance on imports. Tourism, rural economies, trade routes — all would suffer. And thanks to short-sighted decisions like Norfolk’s, we’d be more vulnerable than ever.
We need strong domestic herds, raised to high standards, on British soil — not a hollowed-out industry shackled by red tape and NIMBY neuroses.
Let’s Talk Manure — and Why You Should Care
Yes, manure. Because sustainable manure storage is key to improving soil health, reducing runoff, and cutting carbon. But EU data shows that manure storage investments are declining — and the UK’s own Defra survey confirms it: planning issues are one of the main barriers stopping farmers from building adequate slurry stores.
That’s right — the same planners who say “nutrient neutrality” is a priority are also blocking the infrastructure needed to actually manage nutrients. You couldn’t make it up.
Worse still, nutrient neutrality rules — driven by flawed thinking and environmental performatism — are holding up over 160,000 homes in the UK. Farmers have controversially received exemptions from nitrogen vulnerable zones, but the sheer inconsistency in planning policy means farmers can’t invest in the infrastructure that would help solve the very problem these rules pretend to tackle.
The Phosphate Farce: Importing What We Waste
Here’s the kicker: while we import over 170,000 tonnes of phosphorus annually, primarily from countries like Russia, China and Morocco, we simultaneously allow valuable nutrients from animal manure to pollute our rivers due to inadequate storage and management. This is despite 60 per cent of phosphorus being found in poultry diet ingredients, with only 10 per cent digested.
Hence why agricultural runoff, rich in phosphates, is argued to be a major contributor to the degradation of UK rivers, leading to algal blooms and the death of aquatic life.
Instead of investing in infrastructure to recycle this nutrient through anaerobic digestion for biofuel or as fertiliser, planning restrictions and NIMBY objections stifle progress. It’s a ludicrous cycle of importing what we already have and wasting it due to bureaucratic inertia.
The Bottom Line: Planning Is Broken, and Anti-Farmer NIMBYs Are Winning
What we’re seeing is a systematic failure of political and planning leadership. MPs like Terry Jermy talk a big game, but when it comes to standing up for rural jobs and British food, they fold like cheap lawn furniture.
But who pays the price? British consumers, stuck with rising prices and inferior imports. British farmers, denied the tools and permissions to grow and thrive. British rural communities, denied investment, jobs, and economic dynamism.
Back The Farmers Not The Blockers
British farming does not need another timid councillor hiding behind a planning policy – it needs a YIMBY revolution armed with a muck grab and a sense of urgency.
Yes to smart barns and local meat. Yes to modern welfare standards that beat anything we import. Yes to proper slurry storage – not because it is pretty, but because pretending nutrients vanish if you block a shed is peak bureaucratic blob fantasy.
And yes – loudly – to skewering the MPs who would rather chase headlines in the local press over food security. And skewering the councillors who treat the countryside like a museum curated for triple-lock retirees – who have nothing more than strong de-growth opinions that facilitate managed national decline.
This is no longer a mere policy debate. It is a farce. We are importing phosphates we force farmers to dump, banning infrastructure they need, and then wondering why our rivers are full and prices of meat become ever more expensive.
Remember that Anti-Farmer NIMBYs are not guardians of the countryside – they are its undertakers. So yes – it is time to pick a side. Are you with the people growing the food, managing the land, and investing in a secure and sustainable Britain? Or are you still backs-slapping councillors who think a chicken shed is the end of civilisation.
Because if that is your idea of progress – do not be surprised when there is nothing left on the plate but foreign meat, foreign welfare standards, and the bitter taste of a country that forgot how to feed itself.
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