Red Tractor responds to The Times’ story which falsely claims that Red Tractor farms are more likely to pollute the environment
The Times (03 April 2023) quotes an Environment Agency (‘EA’) report from 2020 that states ‘Red Tractor farms are more likely to pollute the environment’. This is inaccurate, misleading and a disservice to Red Tractor dairy farmers. The data in the report actually supports the opposite conclusion.
For example, the EA report does show that the sector with the largest volume of pollution incidents is Dairy. But the data in the report also shows that pollution incidents took place on 8% of Red Tractor Dairy farms, while there were incidents on 77% of non Red Tractor Dairy farms.
The EA report was published in 2020 and is based on data up to 2019. Back in 2021, we included a small number of its recommendations into the latest version of our farming standards. These set detailed environmental protection requirements for farmers and include requirements around slurry storage and use for example. Where we find issues on-farm that are at high-risk of causing a pollution incident, we report them to the EA as the relevant regulatory authority.
Reducing agricultural pollution is a difficult problem which requires action from across the industry, including Red Tractor and the Environment Agency among others.
That’s why Red Tractor recently became an engagement partner of the Courtauld Commitment 2030, which is an ambitious voluntary agreement that brings together organisations across the food system – from producer to consumer – to make food and drink production and consumption more sustainable and includes a dedicated water target.
We continue to push for a data sharing arrangement on environmental protections with the EA, which may help to provide a more robust way of addressing pollution incidents on Red Tractor assured farms.
Red Tractor’s approach to protecting food safety through data sharing with enforcement bodies like the Food Standards Agency has been praised by the United Nation’s Codex Alimentarius.
Update: 7 April 2023:
The Environment Agency has written the following letter to The Times to set the record straight:
Sir, Your piece on our 2020 report on the Red Tractor Assurance scheme was absolutely correct that farmers can – and must – do more to clean up our rivers. However, your headline misrepresented our findings. While we found much room for improvement, we actually found that the number of pollution incidents on RTA farms would appear to be lower than might be expected by chance based on the representation of farm types in the scheme. Furthermore, since the report was published we have been continuing to work with RTA to improve both the environmental standards of the scheme and how they are verified.
We all want to see cleaner rivers and streams, and we’re working constructively with Red Tractor to help their members do that.
Kevin Austin, Head of Agriculture at the Environment Agency
Update: 13 April 2023
Red Tractor has written the following letter to The Times to set the record straight:
Sir, on 3 April The Times quoted an Environment Agency (EA) report from 2020 asserting that ‘Red Tractor farms are more likely to pollute the environment’.
The EA have written to you, saying that your headline misrepresented their findings. We are disappointed not to have seen this response in the paper so far.
We would go further to say that your piece was inaccurate, misleading and a disservice to 46,000 Red Tractor farmers. The data in the EA report actually supports the opposite conclusion.
Take the example of dairy farms: The data in the EA report shows that pollution incidents took place on 8% of Red Tractor dairy farms, while there were incidents on 77% of non Red Tractor dairy farms.
Reducing agricultural pollution is a difficult problem which requires action from across the industry, including Red Tractor and the Environment Agency among others. It also requires accurate and balanced reporting.
Best regards,
Jim Moseley
CEO, Red Tractor