Future of farming too important to founder for want of a bit more time
THERE is no disguising the changes coming our way once the long-established system of subsidising agriculture are altered, thanks to Britain’s exit from the European Union.
Over many decades, the way the European Union’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) worked has had a profound effect on our countryside.
Depending on your point of view, CAP propped up farm businesses that would otherwise have been unprofitable or kept UK farmers producing vital food in spite of market fluctuations and unreliable weather.
Either way, the CAP has determined the fate of farming, to a large extent, for very many years. So it is hardly surprising that the system of support coming in to replace it has been minutely examined by farmers’ leaders and farmers themselves.
Change is always disruptive and change that deliberately sets out to shake up an industry, and alter its priorities, is likely to be more disruptive than most.
Against a relatively calm backdrop, phasing out the Basic Payment Scheme, which rewards farmers for the land they own and replaces it with a subsidy system that pays farmers for delivering benefits to the public more widely, would have been challenging, even over the longish timescale allowed.
But with coronavirus having caused huge disruption, the aftereffects of Brexit still being felt on the workforce and inflation now rising significantly, putting pressure on farm businesses, just like everyone else, the case for reviewing the plans and, perhaps, delaying the changes is certainly worthy of consideration.
Ministers have been distracted, just like everyone else, during the pandemic. And while it is true Britain’s economic bounce-back has been faster and stronger than that of any other G7 nation, there is still a lot of uncertainty around.
Shortages of fuel, fears about Christmas food availability and issues around a lack of trained butchers to process Britain’s meat have all added to the pressures already being felt in an industry under pressure.
It also happens to be Britain’s most important industry, providing the nation and its people with the food and drink they need for survival. Leaving farming potentially exposed, to the extent that Britain’s self-sufficiency drops below the already worryingly low 60%, could be disastrous. Large tracts of farmland left to turn into wilderness might please a few extremists in the rewilding movement; the majority of Britons, however, would rather see productive acres than bramble and weed-infested wastelands.
The switch to well-managed payments made for environmental improvements makes sense, but it needs to be staged and farmers encouraged to strike a balance as food producers and landscape custodians.
If maintaining a profitable farming sector, well able to meet our needs for top-quality, high welfare food and drink, means the Government must pause the roll-out of its subsidy shake-up, then that’s what should happen. The replacement for CAP will last decades. The least we can do is give it time to properly work.