The Manx National Farmers’ Union is urging all election candidates to back Manx farming, saying the island must do more to support local food production.
Yesterday (September 9) marked Back British Farming Day, and today the MNFU shifted the focus to the island, asking candidates to “Back Manx Farming”.
The Union says it has met many candidates over the summer and has invited all of them to a presentation tonight (September 10).
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The MNFU points to a Tynwald statement made nearly two years ago which declared the Isle of Man had only 6% local food retailing, and says it wants to highlight both the challenges of producing food when political attention has been elsewhere and the benefits of the island’s farming model.
According to the Union, the Isle of Man does not have large‑scale industrial factory farming.
Stock live outdoors for most of the year, are housed only for shelter and feeding, disease levels are low, dairy is rigorously tested, flour is additive‑free, eggs are genuinely free‑range, and farmers work to exceptionally high environmental standards.
Many farms, the MNFU says, began creating additional nature habitats years ago simply because they enjoyed seeing nature thrive. The island’s traditional hedgerows, created hundreds of years ago, now form a nature network more than 5,000km long.
“In an unstable world should we not be protecting this wonderful asset better?” the Union asks, adding that farmers are the only people who can produce food and protect nature at the same time.
