Red Tractor Assurance has confirmed that it is dropping its proposed Greener Farms Commitment module (GFC) following negative feedback from members and the wider industry.
The scheme was first announced last autumn, but the standards body was quickly criticised for a lack of consultation, with some accusing British Retail Consortium (BRC) members of trying to gain from on-farm environmental benefits without being prepared to pay for them.
Among the critics was then NFU Vice President Tom Bradshaw, who in October said the Red Tractor board had not taken the views of NFU members into account. “For the past 18 months we have been robustly challenging the governance behind the development of this environment module,” he said. “I was alarmed that it had been previously decided by the Red Tractor board that, in developing this module, all the technical committees and sector boards where NFU members sit would be bypassed. I have found this position completely unacceptable and said so repeatedly”.
On Friday 22 March, Christine Tacon, chair of Red Tractor, commented, “We take responsibility for those issues and are sorry. We hope that by dropping the module, we can close the door on this chapter and move forward. We will only be involved in future environmental standards when all constituencies across the UK food and farming chain, by sector, ask us to and with full consultation”.
In a joint response, the four UK farming unions and AHDB said, “We welcome today’s news that Red Tractor has listened to feedback from its members and has axed the proposed Greener Farms Commitment”. However, some farmers and growers warned that the loss of the GFC must not result in even more separate audits. Andrew Blenkiron of the Euston Estate in Suffolk told The Independent, “Given that the industry doesn’t seem to want to prove its green credentials to its customers, I fully understand the reasoning behind the Red Tractor decision. I only hope that the result isn’t a mass of audits being completed for each of the retailers independently”.
Andrew Opie, director of food and sustainability at the British Retail Consortium, commented, “It is disappointing that we have not been able to make progress with the agreed AFS strategy. However, this will not stop retailers working with their farmers to improve sustainability at a farm level and demonstrating this commitment to their consumers and stakeholders”.
Red Tractor’s Assured Food Standards Board also accepted the conclusions of the recent Tickell review of its governance and confirmed that it will implement all the review’s recommendations. Christine Tacon added, “We will listen more closely to our farmers; for example, Red Tractor has previously found that transparency, audit burden and value are farmers’ top concerns with Red Tractor. Significant efforts are already underway to tackle these, which you will hear more about in the next few months”.