21 February 2017
Green MEP Molly Scott Cato, a member of the European Parliament’s Agriculture Committee, has launched two reports on ideas for the future of farming post-Brexit. The launch comes on the day the National Union of Farmers begin their annual conference in Birmingham, where Defra Secretary, Andrea Leadsom, again attacked the EU for ‘tying farmers up in red tape’. She also called for a system based on simpler, more effective rules, where farmers will be ‘free to grow more, sell more and export more.’
However, Ms Leadsom offered farmers no clear plan on farming post-Brexit and Dr Scott Cato says that questions to the government reveal they lack ideas on the future of farming after the UK leaves the EU.
The two reports – one by the Soil Association; the other by Simon Fairlie of the Land Workers’ Alliance – foresee a future where policies put soil health and biodiversity first, and where the way we use land helps tackle climate change. They say that to achieve this, farmers will need to receive at least as much money as they currently get through the Common Agriculture Policy (CAP). Molly Scott Cato said:
“Like Ms Leadsom, I don’t want farmers tied up in red tape, but we do need to bind ourselves in some green tape.We need to ensure land management protects and improves our soils, encourages biodiversity, and helps tackle climate change. The reports I have launched today contain a wealth of ideas on how we can achieve this.
“They also call for direct payments based on land area to be scrapped; instead future payments would to be based on paying farmers for the public benefits they provide and for protecting the environment.
“With the government planning to remove us from the single market where around 65% of total UK agricultural exports are sold, platitudes about growing more, selling more and exporting more will ring hollow for most farmers.
“These reports show how to move UK agriculture away from a dependence on export markets and towards creating thriving rural communities by supporting family farms and relocalising food production. Brexit could be a unique opportunity to move towards an ecologically and economically sustainable farming system, but the government seems determined to move us in the wrong direction.”
Dr Tom MacMillan, Director of Innovation at the Soil Association, said:
“We’re hearing a fair bit of consensus from farming, nature and public interest groups on the big principles for agricultural policy after we leave the CAP – that the public expect high standards on animal welfare, for example, and that public money should pay for public benefits. What’s missing are practical and inspiring ideas that seize the chance to make a better fist of it, and face up to monumental challenges like climate change. So we’ve tried to set out a few game-changing ideas in our report”.
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