Farmers are part of climate change solution
Climate comment is everywhere – there’s an emergency, and we all need to do our bit to tackle this colossal, global environmental challenge.
Here in the UK, Shropshire farmers are on the front line. They are the ones who have the finger unfairly pointed at them over emissions, but county agriculture is uniquely placed to be part of the solution.
Put simply, farming captures carbon dioxide from the air and turns it into a wide range of foods, fibres and fuels.
Our farmers are busy enhancing the industry’s ability to capture carbon, using it to generate "negative emissions," in other words, actively removing CO2 from the atmosphere to balance the methane and nitrous oxide emitted from food production systems.
So with COP26 upon us, the discussion, for farmers, is about producing food as sustainably as possible and encouraging people to buy local, home-grown, climate-friendly produce when they can.
Oliver Cartwright is NFU West Midlands communications adviser
