Farming Minister Mark Spencer addresses farmers and industry representatives at the Pig and Poultry Fair. British Pig & Poultry Fair Farmers Guardian. He started by outlining the challenges the sector has faced including disease, labour shortages, price and markets.

Today we’re going even further to support British farmers.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak laid out the Government’s plan⬇️

Great visit to British Sugar to meet with Dan Green, Agricultural Director at British Sugar and Professor Stevens, Head of Science at @BBRO_beet.

We discussed how precision breeding technologies are helping to reduce the use of pesticides in sugar beet production🌱

I have huge respect for our fishermen. It's tough, dangerous work carried out in challenging conditions.

Today I was humbled to join families and the fishing community of Grimsby for the first #NationalFishingRemembranceDay

Fishermen's Mission @FlyingAngelsNews

Huge congratulations to UK's Dr Geoffrey Hawtin and US’s Dr Cary Fowler for being named 2024 World Food Prize Laureates. An extraordinary achievement following decades of pioneering work to protect global food security with Svalbard Seed Vault now holding 1.25m seed samples.

Food security is more important than ever. 

That's why we're backing British farmers with the Sustainable Farming Incentive.🚜

Find out more about #SFI here: farming.campaign.gov.uk

Excellent tour of Adnams Southwold brewery, seeing the brewing process from start to finish including a little taste at the end

A fascinating evening listening to John Simpson
From reporting in the most dangerous war zones in the world to modern uk politics a very balanced and interesting discussion

It was great to meet our new agri-food attachés this week and to talk about the valuable role they play in helping drive export growth.

We're sharing our latest #RABIpledge videos throughout this week and start with Farming Minister Mark Spencer, who helped launch our year of Empowering the Worth and Wellbeing of Farming People earlier this month.

You can read more about the launch and Sir Mark's pledge here:

Today I chaired the first Food and Drink Sector Council of 2024.
Defra UK welcomes joint action from industry and government to reduce recruitment challenges and promote career opportunities in our world leading food & drink sector.
Find out more: gov.uk/government/gro…

After travelling the world in search of the perfect steak, Hawksmoor discovered that the best beef comes from small farms right here in the UK.🥩
In honour of #GreatBritishBeefWeek24 , Mark Spencer visited Hawksmoor, Wood Wharf to find out what makes British beef the best!

Last week I spoke at the Geneva Sugar Conference about managing trade relationships between EU and UK.

You can learn more about #GenevaSugar here:
commodityinsights.spglobal.com/geneva_sugar_c…

Lovely visit to Hawksmoor yesterday to talk about their commitment to serving only the very best beef this country has to offer. 🥩

They work with small farmers to produce the highest quality meat - and it tastes great too!
#GreatBritishBeefWeek24

Posting in full the agricultural fatalities for 2023-4.

32, which includes the most deadly single month (May) for 15 years.

Of particular awfulness are the deaths of 3 children under 2.

A farmer is 22x more likely to be killed than the average UK worker.

How do we improve?

This year, we awarded £12.2 million funding to projects that solve long-term challenges to plants, crops and farmed animals.

Mark Spencer visited one of the winners of the ‘On farm Environmental Resilience’ competition, Wye Hops Limited, to learn more.

University of Kent

This week: fighting to save train-making in Derby; Leicestershire families see a cut in funds for children with special educational needs & fair play in football? Politicians back Forest & Leicester’s points deduction protests. BBC1, 10am. Guests Mark Spencer & Louise Jones

We are grateful to the Farming Minister Mark Spencer for his speech highlighting the Government's intention to increase transparency across the three sectors via new regulations for the pig sector and the egg sector, as well as a review into fairness in the poultry supply chain.