BRITISH FARMERS’ OPINIONS
Jonty Brunyee, National Trust tenant farmer, producing rare-breed meat in Gloucestershire
We produce high-quality rare-breed meat, farm high-value wildlife habitats, such as flower-rich meadows, and regenerate soil (locking in carbon). Without EU or government support, our business is not viable in its current form. We are very worried as we have put our heart and soul into this farm, but we can’t plan beyond 2020. A cut in funding or a delay in new-scheme development will have an immediate impact. However, Brexit may be a chance to develop an integrated food and environment strategy, with regenerative agriculture and soil at its very heart. Let’s pay farmers for all the public goods they provide. Farmers don’t want a subsidy or social security payment – they want rewarding for what they do.
Ali Capper, an apple and hop grower on the Herefordshire borders and chairman of the NFU horticulture board
Seasonal workers from Europe are critical to our business as without them we cannot pick our crop and pack it for sale. We have workers who are understandably very worried about being here, and need reassurance. The lack of certainty from the Government is unsettling and a cause for concern. I hope that British supermarkets will protect themselves from the risk of volatile exchange rates and the higher costs of imports by getting behind British-grown ingredients.
Illtud Llyr Dunsford, farmer and owner of Charcutier Ltd in Carmarthenshire
We’re fortunate to have grown our business in a European-funded climate – the Rural Community Development Fund paid for 50 per cent of our production unit. If we were starting now, I don’t think we’d get funding. Brexit has made us rethink things. Many of the specialist casings and spices we use in our charcuterie are from Europe, so the value of the pound means the last order I made was about 12 per cent higher. If subsidies go, it will mean bigger, more efficient farms that need fewer people. This will have an extremely detrimental effect on rural economies like ours, where there’s huge unemployment. Farmers keep the area going. Any agricultural policy needs to be a social policy, too.
Paul Baynes, dairy farmer in Northumberland and joint-owner of Northumbrian Pedigree Milk & Cream
Twelve years ago, the milk price collapsed and it meant that our family farm had to diversify. We got a grant – partly funded by European money – to start bottling our own non-homogenised milk. Seasonal fluctuations in demand mean some of our milk still goes to the ‘bulk tank’, which is bought by a processor. We get 16p per litre for that compared with 61p per litre for our own bottled milk. We’ve got a certain amount of protection from selling direct to market that other dairy farmers don’t have, but I’m still worried about the future. The dairy industry has been feeling the squeeze for years and any reduction in payments could see a lot more farms having to close.