BRADFORD-based Morrisons is to offer support for beef and lamb farmers working to help the environment. 

It will offer livestock premiums, green discounts, subsidised audits and free environmental advice to help and reward farmers for reducing carbon emissions.

Measures will be put in place to improve things like biodiversity and soil health. Herd health and protecting family farming will be at the heart of efforts to become animal and enterprise positive.

Morrisons has already started a programme to be directly supplied by net zero carbon British farms by 2030, which is five years ahead of the market.

Bradford Telegraph and Argus: Morriosns is helping farmers through a new scheme Morriosns is helping farmers through a new scheme

To date more than 130 beef and lamb farms have joined Morrisons’ net zero agriculture programme, with 500 farms expected to be on board by the end of this year. Morrisons is supplied by 2,100 beef and lamb farmers.

On joining the Sustainable Beef and Lamb Scheme, farmers will be offered free advice on carbon emissions, animal nutrition and biodiversity - including tree planting and landscape assessments.

They will also be handed subsidised environmental audits and soil testing and a range of discounts on products and services which will help improve farm sustainability.

Morrisons hopes that its new Sustainable Beef and Lamb Scheme will be assessed by Assured Food Standards (Red Tractor) through its ‘Environment Module’ which was announced last year to recognise each farm’s greener commitments.

Sophie Throup, head of agriculture at Morrisons, said: “True sustainable farming means looking at the whole farm and all of its environmental aspects - and putting nature right at the middle.

“We are investing in the Sustainable Beef and Lamb Scheme to maintain value for customers while helping farmers reach net zero and go beyond to become nature positive. The whole farm can be part of the solution.

“We aim to significantly reduce carbon emissions in meat through improvements to what our animals eat and we’ll offset the remainder with initiatives such as sensitive tree planting and soil sequestration.”

Over the next eight years, Morrisons will work with its 3,000 farmers and growers to produce affordable net zero carbon meat, fruit and vegetables.

The chain expects that the first products to reach net zero carbon status will be eggs this year, followed by lamb, fruit, vegetables, pork and beef products in the years to follow.