The National Farmland Trust is a not for profit organisation which holds the deeds and titles of the land for the nation, protecting our farmland and countryside within the UK. It uses the money from the donations and membership fees to purchase and protect farmland around the uk. Thereby minimising the risk of food shortages for us and future generations.
What is the trust going to do with the land and farms it buys?
Just like the National Trust and English Heritage, we will keep the land in trust for future generations. Protected for the growing of food into eternity. We will not be able to sell or swap the land given or donated to the trust, only land bought by the trust may be swapped for a much larger area or sold under compulsory purchase. But unlike the National Trust and English Heritage who do fantastic work protecting our Castles, Stately Homes and Ruins, The National Farmland Trust will protect your farmland, the farmland that is your food source. The food source that is essential to our existence!
Sharing farmland with wildlife
We share our farmland with our wildlife. The National Farmland Trust will protect habitats for all species of wildlife throughout the UK. By sharing its farmland and countryside with the wildlife that lives there we will take their needs into consideration before making our decisions.
We intend to replant hedgerows and plant trees in areas of farmland not used for agriculture or grazing, steep hillsides, field corners and field borders can all be planted with trees, producing tree lined corridors for our wildlife.
We do not believe that planting vast areas of fertile farmland, with vast amounts of trees will in anyway help the UK increase its food production so badly needed.
Why Was The Trust Formed?
The trust was formed to protect a diminishing amount of farmland, our food source our countryside and wildlife habitat. With ever growing population, more housing, more shopping centres, more roadways and motorways, there is more land disappearing every day under our expanding infrastructure.
We decided it was time to take action to try and protect as much land as possible to ensure a sustainable food source into the future for all the generations to come. No one knows what effect global warming will have on our ability to provide the UKs ever increasing need for food so we need to protect as much land as possible, as soon as possible.
Moving forwards
The National Farmland Trust aims to purchase farmland and open countryside by means of membership fees and donations to secure its future into eternity for the farmers of the future to feed the generations to come.
In addition, it will hold title to donated farms, land, countryside, woodlands and forestry. The stipulation is that the land must be used for the production of agricultural produce or be of benefit to our air quality, which is in the interest of the population of the UK. Our only purpose is safeguarding our food source, our land and its wildlife.
Our farmland is our food source
Our farmland is the place where all our food comes from, unless home produced. Whatever your eating preferences, vegan, vegetarian or omnivore all our food is produced from our soil. All our meats are reared on grass and hay grown in our soil or the cereals grown in our fields.
Our farms are under threat, disappearing under housing and accompanying infrastructure. Business parks, industrial areas, shopping centers, park and rides, roads and motorways . All using up our farmland, our food source. We cannot make more land, what we have must be able to feed our growing population sustainably for generations to come.
Food - an essential fact of life!
We live on a small group of islands - we cannot make more land.
Who do you think will feed us when we have destroyed our food source? When we have little or no farmland left or when flooding has washed away crops in some countries while drought destroys crops in others?
Yes, we know there are hundreds of thousands of acres of farmland now. But there are more than 11 million people living in London alone and millions more in our cities and towns throughout the UK. Over 66 million in total in 2019 and growing, the fact is, even now we only produce approximately 50% of the food we eat. We have to import around 1/2 of our food to feed our population.
Do we really want to rely on what other countries might be willing to provide? Should we not think, that they also might have problems of their own, feeding their own population with their own weather problems, caused by climate change. Help us to protect our food source, our farmland, our countryside and our wildlife and their habitats.
Become a member or make a donation help us to make a difference, your very food could depend on it