This report, commissioned by the UK countryside charity CPRE, assesses the current state of “county farms” - i.e. farms owned by local authorities, sometimes let out at below-market rates to assist new entrants to farming. It finds that the area of county farms has halved in the past 40 years as a result of being sold off.
The report recommends that the UK government should halt the sale of county farms, that local councils should report on how they intend to maximise social and environmental benefits from their county farms, that councils should be offered additional funding to invest in and buy new county farms, and that councils should help their farm tenants to access post-Brexit farm payments for nature protection, carbon storage and public access.
Read the full report, Reviving county farms, here. See also the Foodsource resource How far could changes in production practices reduce GHG emissions?
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