Back British Farming

Farmers & growers are facing a cashflow crisis and need urgent action to plan next year's food production

Farmers and growers produce the food on our tables, but right now many are fighting for their future.

The worst drought in 50 years has led to failed crops, severely reduced harvests and poor grass growth. Soaring fuel, fertiliser and energy costs are adding to the pressure, while livestock and dairy farmers face the UK’s most significant bluetongue outbreak on record.

Without urgent help, some farmers may not have the funds they need to plant next year’s crops or keep their businesses going. That puts the future of British farming, and our supply of homegrown food, at risk.

We are calling on the government to provide short-term loans and introduce a fallen stock scheme, giving farmers the breathing space to recover and plan for the year ahead.

Add your name and stand with Britain’s farmers. Together, we can urge the government to act now to protect the future of British food.

Back British Farming

 

In April 2026, Tesco announced record profits of £2.8–3.1 billion while British farmers went bankrupt supplying their shelves. Keir Starmer's government has done nothing to stop a supermarket oligopoly that controls 80% of UK food retail, allowing three chains to dictate terms to every farmer in the country.

In January 2026, a Devon cattle farmer lost his long-term Tesco contract. That contract was worth £324,000 annually—78% of his farm income. Not because he failed. Because Tesco found cheaper beef elsewhere. The contract was terminated with no protection, no compensation, no government intervention.

This is the scandal of Britain's food system. More than one in three UK farms reported losses in 2025. Average returns on capital in farming have been negative for a decade. Meanwhile, Tesco announces record profits every quarter. Farmgate prices for milk sit at 28-47p per litre while retail price is £1.00-£1.50. The squeeze happens at the farm gate. The profit lands in supermarket headquarters.

The government had choices. Introduce price floors. Mandate fair payment terms. Regulate the oligopoly. Break up market concentration. Protect British farmers from being undercut by cheap imports. They chose none of these options. Starmer's government inherited a farming crisis and made it worse. They took office promising support. Then they introduced inheritance tax that forces family farms to sell. Then they allowed supermarkets to keep squeezing. Then they stood back.

On April 16th, Tesco announces Q4 results. The numbers will be strong. Profit guidance likely exceeded. And British farmers will go deeper into the red, knowing their government won't protect them from supermarket extraction.

This is government failure. Complete failure. A case study in how Westminster abandons British agriculture while corporate profits soar unchecked.

This channel investigates how Westminster's policy decisions destroy British farming when no one's watching.

Love British Food

 

UK Climate Friendly Farming

 Did you know 87% of UK beef is produced using predominantly forage-based diets?

British farming with its extensive, grass-based, grazing systems produces some of the most sustainable beef in the world.

#BackBritishFarming #ClimateFriendlyFarming

Support UK Farming

 

Family Farm Tax

Peers launch inquiry into ‘family farm tax’. Farmers warn that Labour’s planned inheritance tax reforms could devastate family businesses — forcing some to sell land just to pay the bill

Support UK Farmers

Thanks to the family farms across the UK!

Support UK Farmers

 

Back British Farming Day

British farming is the bedrock of the country’s largest manufacturing sector – food and drink – which is worth £153.2 billion to the economy and supports 4.2 million jobs. 

Here's how you can get involved on Back British Farming Day: 

 

1.   Share why you back British farming on social media by using the hashtag #BackBritishFarmingDay.

2.   Buy British when you shop - look for the Red Tractor label in supermarkets.

3.   Visit your local farm shop to enjoy delicious, British produce.

From the Back British Farming website Take action now:

• Join our call to teach children more about food and farming
• Stop the family farm tax – email your MP
• Add your name to our call to action to stop the family farm tax

Explore our public-facing campaigns on BackBritishFarming.co.uk, or sign up for updates to stay involved.

Behind Every Slow Tractor Is A farmer Feeding Britain

 

Support Our Farmers

Hundreds of tractors are expected to descend on London for the third time since the autumn budget - Today Monday 10th February Back British Farming.

RIP British Farming

"Keir Starmer must listen to farmers and step back from the brink and do what is right and best for our great country."

Tractors are expected to travel into the capital today from across the country, including Exmoor, Shropshire, Somerset and the home counties.

The vehicles will line up on Whitehall from 10am. There will be speeches at noon and a slow drive around central London from about 12.45pm.

#StopUPOV - It should not be illegal to save and swap seeds

 

It's time to #StopUPOV

Imagine being unable to share your seeds with your neighbours - all because a corporation on a different continent owns the rights. 

Now imagine that doing so could land you with a criminal record - as is the case in Indonesia, where farmers have been prosecuted for saving and sharing particular crop varieties. 

An obscure trade convention called UPOV91 is the reason behind this - and the UK is complicit in spreading it around the world. 

UPOV91 makes it illegal for farmers to freely save, swap or sell some of their own seeds - and it's currently present in 19 UK trade deals with 68 countries around the world - 19 in the Global South.
 
Add your name and stand against corporate overreach that criminalises farmers - and together, we can #StopUPOV. 

Trade justice doesn't happen overnight - but by joining us today, you're standing with the farmers worldwide constrained by corporate overreach into the land they tend to every day.

Trade mechanisms like UPOV91 work best for big business when they aren't well known - but we want to change that.

Sign the Petition

Open Farm Sunday

 

Visit a farm this weekend for Open Farm Sunday

Hundreds of farms all over the country will open their gates for Open Farm Sunday on 9 June.   Pull on your sturdiest shoes, learn first-hand about where your food comes from and treat the family to a great day out.   Looking for a farm to visit? Take a look at seven reasons to attend your local event.

FIND YOUR LOCAL FARM

Back British Farming

 

 

Help make British farming and food production a government priority Add your name to a letter we'll send to the new Secretary of State responsible for food and farming to show the importance the British public place on homegrown food production. ADD YOUR NAME

Farming plays a critical role in all our lives, providing our food, shaping the countryside we love and enhancing the natural environment.   More than one million people made the last government sit up and listen when it came to the importance of standards for animal welfare, food production and the environment in UK trade deals. The next government must also listen to us all.

 

Back British Farming

 

Help secure the future of British food

Click HERE to add your support to the National Farmers Union letter to the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and ask him to keep food self-sufficiency levels above 60%

Food self-sufficiency is Britain’s ability to feed ourselves using only food produced here. Show you care about the future of British food. The more people who add their name to our letter below, the more powerful it will be. We will send this with your support to the government minister in charge of food, George Eustice MP.

Here is the letter

Dear Secretary of State,
 
The issue of self-sufficiency – our ability to feed ourselves using only food produced in this country – is a barometer of British farming as a global leader.

In 2020, the UK’s overall food self-sufficiency was 60%. In 1984, it was 78%.

We are calling on you, as a champion of British farming, to make sure our self-sufficiency levels do not fall any further and every opportunity is seized to increase them.

The best way to do this is by setting a target for Britain’s food production levels, using self-sufficiency as a key metric, as part of the Government's Food Security report which is due to be published this year. 

This figure will clearly show if we are becoming more or less reliant on the rest of the world to feed us as a nation.

British food is some of the highest quality, safest, and most nutritious in the world. We have the climate and the natural resources to produce fresh, affordable food for everyone, in every corner of the UK. But we cannot be global leaders if our own production levels drop and we have less to export.

We want the government to work with British farmers, as laid out in our British Food: Leading the Way report (to be launched on Wednesday), to produce more food that we are great at producing because of our landscape, soils and climate.

Of course, we accept that there are always going to be some foods that our natural environment just won’t enable us to grow, but as a country we should be ambitious to provide more food for people in the UK and around the world.

By not allowing self-sufficiency to drop below 60% you will show that British farming is leading the way. To be truly ambitious the UK Government could aim to increase British food production, our self-sufficiency percentage, and the amount of British food consumed at home and exported overseas.

Yours sincerely,