The National Farmers' Union (NFU) is an employer association representing farming and growing businesses within England and Wales. The NFU originated as the Lincolnshire Farmers' Union (LFU) which was founded in 1904. Over the next four years, similar farmers' organisations were established in neighbouring counties. In 1908, these organisations formed the current National Farmers' Union. Colin Campbell was its first president. The organisation has been led by Tom Bradshaw as president since 2024.
History
Background tensions The late 19th century coincided with increased struggle between three main groups:
farmworkers, those farming on land on which they had no control over; tenant farmers, those renting the land to farm; and landowners, those owning the agricultural land. The rise of the labour movement saw farmworkers organise agricultural trade unions such as the Lincolnshire Labour League and the Warwickshire Agricultural Labourers Union. These unions initially achieved modest victories and growth, but a series of unsuccessful attempts to use collective action resulted in the decline and dissolution of early farmworkers' unions. In response to the victory of the Liberal Party in the 1906 UK general election, many farm owners took revenge against farmers suspected of radical views or of Liberal sympathies. On 20 July 1906, the Eastern Counties Agricultural Labourers & Small Holders Union was formed in an attempt to combat these retributions, and further renew unionisation efforts among farmworkers. Further angered in their opposition to potential land reform by the Liberal government, the Central Land Association (CLA) was formed to represent landlords' interests against their farmers, and against the Liberal government.
Formation and growth
In 1904, the Lincolnshire Farmers' Union (LFU) was founded to represent tenant farmers, in part against both increasingly unionised farmworkers, and against landlords. On 10 December 1908, a meeting was held at the Smithfield Show to discuss the formation of a national organisation formed from the LFU. The meeting resulted in the formation of the National Farmers' Union. By 1913, it had 20,000 members—a majority being tenant-farmers—and excluded landowners but allowed owner-occupying farmers. The NFU's first president, Colin Campbell, worked to get new branches off the ground, encourage membership and establish the NFU's credibility with government, at a time when farming was going through the longest and deepest depression in its history, as imports of cheap grain and frozen meat flooded in from abroad. The NFU stood six candidates in the 1918 general election, none of whom were elected. In the 1922 general election, it stood three unsuccessful NFU candidates under its own name, and sponsored four successful Conservative Party candidates. It again sponsored Conservative candidates in 1923 and 1935 elections, but has not done so since. Campbell was succeeded as NFU President in 1921 by Richard Robbins, an employers' representative on the Agricultural Wages Board. On 3 December 1955, 12 Welsh members of the NFU left and formed the rival Farmers' Union of Wales. Verley Merchant, the NFU's Welsh Secretary, responded to the formation by saying "We will smash you in three months".
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