Red Tractor Assurance has confirmed it is dropping a Greener Farms Commitment module from its scheme.

Announced last autumn, the module was to be available from 1 April 2024 and was designed to allow farmers to track their progress against five key areas, including carbon foot-printing.

However, it soon emerged that Red Tractor had pressed ahead with the initiative without fully consulting farmers.

The chair of Red Tractor, Christine Tacon said that while the module had been conceived with good intentions, errors had been made.

Moving forward

“We take responsibility for those issues and are sorry. We hope that by dropping the module, we can close the door on this chapter and move forward.”

“We will only be involved in future environmental standards when all constituencies across the UK food and farming chain, by sector, ask us to and with full consultation,” she said.