Red Tractor chief blames poor communication for GFC collapse

Red Tractor chief executive Jim Moseley has insisted that the principles behind the now defunct Greener Farms Commitment (GFC) were sound, but the project was scuppered by a combination of poor communication and inadequate consultation.

Speaking on a Tenant Farmers Association webinar on Thursday (25 April), he said the entire board of 18 members – which included the farm unions and AHDB – had called for the development of a single environmental module in 2021.

See also: Red Tractor ‘a victim of its own success’ says chief executive

This was when they realised  the marketplace was becoming more environmentally focused and, unless a common approach could be found, there was a risk of multiple audits as each retailer developed their own programmes.

This module would differ from the Red Tractor core standards, in that it would be voluntary and would be reviewed annually rather than every five years.

“For me there were another couple of side benefits of the module,” said Mr Moseley.

“It would enable the product to be differentiated to consumers, which might have provided a mechanism for adopters to at least recover their costs.

“Also, it would enable agriculture to communicate its environmental credentials.

“My worry was that, if retailers developed their own programmes,  it would be the retailers shouting about their environmental credentials, when in reality it’s the farmers that are doing all the hard work.”

Sector boards

Mr Moseley noted that, by the end of September 2023, the GFC was ready to be put to the sector boards for technical scrutiny.

“But the British Retail Consortium stupidly – and they’ve apologised – did a member briefing and put it on its website.

“It should have been gated so only BRC members could see it, but it went public.”

The NFU then came under a lot of pressure and the whole situation “exploded”.

“The pity for Red Tractor is it never had an opportunity to be able to communicate about the Greener Farms Commitment at all,” said Mr Moseley.

“But it also wouldn’t have been the time to have done it. We were entering a period of technical scrutiny and weren’t ready to talk about the Greener Farms Commitment.

“The communication was taken out of our hands and became a huge explosion. A pity, but that’s the way it happened.”

GFC ‘dead and gone’

Mr Moseley acknowledged that the GFC is now “completely dead and gone”.

Asked what lessons had been learned from the debacle, he said it was to involve the sector boards from day one.

“The board decision was that we would develop this in-house. The learning is, we just can’t do that.

“We will always have to go to consultation with anything we’re proposing in the future, and the first route for that is to take it through the sector boards.”