Future Countryside 2025 provided another valuable platform for addressing the big questions shaping the future of rural land use in the UK. Launched in 2023, this initiative has quickly gathered momentum, uniting 51 organisations around a shared vision for a sustainable, inclusive, and resilient countryside.
The initiative’s growing influence is clear. Following the 2023 event, Defra’s Lead Non-Executive Director issued a reflection paper, and this year’s conference drew major figures such as Farming Minister Daniel Zeichner, NFU President Tom Bradshaw, and former Defra Secretary Michael Gove. With such authoritative voices at the table, the event continues to demonstrate its potential to shape policy discussions in meaningful ways.
The 2025 event, held on May 20th at Chatsworth, centred on pressing rural issues—from the SFI closure to tax reform and public funding pressures. It also reinforced a vital message: sustainability goes beyond climate metrics and must fully embrace nature’s role in achieving long-term resilience.
Figure 1Michael Goves penny farthing metaphor for the current policy perspective
However, for those of us working on the role of biomass crops, it was noticeable that while many relevant topics were raised—flood mitigation, nutrient management, biodiversity, and carbon sequestration—the conversation did not explicitly connect these public goods to biomass as a viable contributor. (Click the links above for each topic to see how biomass crops can factor into these)
This absence need not be viewed as a missed opportunity, but rather an opening for future engagement. The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero’s 2023 Biomass Strategy clearly positions energy crops as an important asset to achieving net zero, and there is an emerging community of land managers embracing these crops across the UK.
As the Future Countryside initiative and any future replacement for the SFI evolve, these forums could become key spaces to open up discussion, share evidence, and explore the multifunctional benefits that well-integrated biomass cropping can deliver—not only in terms of energy, but also biodiversity, soil health, water quality, and rural diversification.
With the promise of “bold ideas, lively debate, and real solutions,” Future Countryside has created a valuable platform. The challenge—and opportunity—now is to ensure that the full spectrum of nature-based and land-based solutions, including biomass crops, are part of that countryside conversation.
