Prince Charles has warned that allowing small family farms to fail would 'break the backbone of Britain's rural communities' and 'rip the heart out of the British countryside'. In an essay for BBC Radio 4's Today programme, he condemned the focus on producing plentiful and cheap food as a 'dead end', arguing it threatens the survival of smaller farms.
The Prince highlighted the 'hidden costs' of modern industrial farming, including damage to soils and watercourses, and emissions contributing to global warming. He urged that nature must be 'put back at the heart of the equation', or risk undermining the true source of prosperity. 'How we produce food has a direct impact on the Earth's capacity to sustain us,' he said.
His intervention comes ahead of the publication of the National Food Strategy, the first major review of Britain's food system in over 70 years. The strategy, commissioned by the government and led by Leon restaurant chain founder Henry Dimbleby, will explore links between food production and environmental degradation, including climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution.
The Prince praised efforts by figures such as footballer Marcus Rashford, chef Jamie Oliver, and Henry Dimbleby to improve the nation's food system 'from field to fork'. He expressed confidence in transitioning to more sustainable agriculture, citing promising investment opportunities in innovative approaches, such as improving soil health and fertility. 'If we regenerate degraded soils around the world, we could capture as much as 70% of the world's carbon emissions,' he suggested.
A Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) spokeswoman said new environmental land management schemes would 'support farmers to produce high quality food in a more sustainable way' and reward them for 'producing public goods such as better air and water quality, protecting wildlife and soil health'. She added that the government wants to 'support all of our farmers, and the choices that they take on their own holdings'.
