Prince Charles claims that letting small family farms go to the wall will “break the backbone of Britain’s rural communities.”
The Prince was speaking out about the dangers of producing large amounts of cheap food which could harm the UK’s smaller farms. He warned if they go it will “rip the heart out of the British countryside.”
It comes ahead of the National Food Strategy publication, the first major review of Britain’s food system for more than 70 years.
The report was commissioned by the Government and is headed by Henry Dimbleby, found of the Leon restaurant chain. It explores the links between food production and climate change, biodiversity loss, pollution and sustainable use of resources.
For most of his adult life, Prince Charles has been open about his concern for the environment and food.
In an essay for Radio4’s Today programme, The Prince of Wales condemns an intensive agricultural system that produces a high volume of food.
“How we produce food has a direct impact on the Earth’s capacity to sustain us, which has a direct impact on human health and economic prosperity,” he added.
The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said new environmental land management schemes would “support farmers to produce high quality food in a more sustainable way and deliver the environmental change that we all want to see.”