Minette Batters has confirmed she is going to step down from her place as Nationwide Farmers’ Union (NFU) president in February 2024.
Batters was elected president in 2018, changing into the NFU’s first feminine president for the reason that group was fashioned in 1908. She was twice re-elected, most lately in February 2022, and is at the moment serving a 3rd two-year time period. Previous to that, Batters was deputy president from 2014 to 2018.
Within the NFU Journal’s October version, Batters wrote: “Ten years is a very long time and I do know I’ve given it my all but it surely’s time for another person to take the lead. However within the meantime, there’s an enormous job to be completed and I stay decided to ship what’s wanted for you, our members.”
Batters has been a vocal advocate for all of UK agriculture and one of many trade’s most recognizable voices in lobbying authorities over the previous decade.
In 2020, she succeeded in uniting a various physique of organizations, from cooks and farmers to shopper teams and welfare consultants, in supporting the NFU meals requirements petition calling on the federal government to set out minimal requirements for meals imports. The petition attracted a couple of million signatures and highlighted the significance of placing meals requirements on the forefront of presidency priorities when commerce offers are being negotiated post-Brexit.
In the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, Batters wrote to then Defra minister George Eustice MP, stating that farmers have been ‘failing to grasp’ why Defra hadn’t been swift sufficient in addressing the vital disruption’ that farmers confronted, including that ministers ought to ‘unequivocally and vocally again a vigorous marketing campaign for British farm produce to be the premier provider of option to UK customers and authorities throughout and past this COVID-19 outbreak’.
Within the months that adopted, the NFU led the nationwide response for presidency, representing all of UK agriculture and horticulture, together with launching a web-based service aimed toward capturing farm enterprise points associated to the pandemic.
Because the battle in Ukraine broke out, the significance of meals and power safety and home-grown meals manufacturing turned a key subject for NFU and its president. Batters additionally met with newly-appointed UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak simply over a month into his premiership to drive house the challenges farmers confronted, from seasonal employee availability to continued assist throughout the power disaster. “I hope this assembly and the Prime Minister’s dedication to making sure Britain has a thriving meals and sector will mark a turning level in how our authorities values and prioritises the manufacturing of home-grown meals, and demonstrates this authorities does again British farming,” stated Batters.
Whereas Batters has been president throughout Conservative-led authorities, she has been dedicated to cross-party campaigning. Throughout her tenure, Labour Get together chief Sir Kier Starmer turned the primary Labour chief in a decade to handle the annual NFU Convention in 2021, which he repeated in 2023. Reacting to his deal with, Batters highlighted the significance of ‘significant insurance policies’: “It’s straightforward to be all issues to all individuals when in opposition. We’d like significant insurance policies now, to again all of this up.”
In 2023, Batters criticized the federal government’s Spring Price range, calling it “extraordinarily disappointing” that the Power and Commerce Intensive Industries scheme had not been prolonged to incorporate horticulture and poultry. “It begs the query – the place does boosting Britain’s meals safety match into the Treasury’s progress plans?”
The NFU president’s tenure additionally noticed the union agree a internet zero goal by 2040. “Our ambition for a internet zero contribution to local weather change throughout the entire of agricultural manufacturing by 2040 is a nationwide aspiration, not an expectation that each farm can attain internet zero,” Batters stated. “Each farm will begin the journey to internet zero from a unique place and can want a novel motion plan.”
Batters runs a 300-acre combined farm in Wiltshire, England, which features a 100-cow continental cross suckler herd in addition to sheep and arable. The NFU president additionally has a catering enterprise, having transformed a 17th century tithe barn into a marriage and company occasions venue. She additionally co-founded Girls in Beef and the Nice British Beef Week.
The NFU, which represents greater than 50,000 farmers and growers throughout England and Wales, is because of maintain elections within the subsequent few months for the reason that subsequent time period runs from 2024 to 2026.
