Marisa met a number of Surrey farms, mainly from the Surrey Hills, at County Hall on Friday to talk to them about the opportunities for funding and support. The focus was mainly on how farmers can access money to plant trees on their land and how that could work with food growing. The Forestry Commission were also in attendance to provide their expertise and show how they would work alongside farmers. The meeting was used as an opportunity to set out how Surrey County Council wants to work closely and in partnership with their tenant farmers and local landowners to support the changes they are going through and end up with more sustainable models of farming that can access Government funding whilst helping the council meet its nature objectives.
Marisa commented,
"Farmers know the land better than anyone and they understand how to deliver on nature recovery but they are facing many challenges and ultimately we still want them to provide food above all else. Whatever we can do to support them we will and most importantly we will listen to their views and needs. I really think local authorities should work closely with farmers and support more local and sustainable food production as well as enabling residents to also support their local farmers and access high quality food. The big challenge will be how we make that food affordable for all and again I think local authorities can help with that."
