Farmers have been in the dark since Brexit as to where they will be headed after the demise of the Common Agricultural Policy. The CAP was reviled by virtually everyone, riddled with inconsistencies and fundamentally flawaed. Rather than encouraging healthy business paractices and sustainable farming it rewarded quantity over quality and was blind to how easy it was to play the system.
Brexit has put British farmers in a perilous position, with a lack of clarity around the rush to do trade deals and the fear of a grossly unfair playing field. The spectre of cheap American antibiotic riddled meat, levels of salmonella in poultry that would never be tolerated in the UK, and a creeping lack of confidence in the Government to ‘do the right thing’ have just added to their cynicysm.
The Conservatives have just announced the first schemes that will replace the CAP. During their camaigning much was made of the transition to paying farmers to improve the soil and look after the environment that they farmed, the ‘Path to Sustainable Farming’ was shouted from the rooftops. Which received considerable praise across the board, we are in the midst of a climate crisis, folloing the policies in the CAP is basically environmental suicide.
The first two elements of the new scheme have been announced, the ‘Farming Equipment and Technology Fund’ and the ‘Farming Transformation Fund for Water‘. The Gauardian observed that ‘the Wildlife Trusts, the RSPB and the National Trust jointly accused the government of failing to take seriously the urgent need for nature-friendly farming.’
Indeed the schemes don’t seem to raise the bar hugely in any environmental direction, and it looks like all farmers will be eligable for the payments of between £20 to £58 per hectare to take basic measures to maintain and improve their soils.
Time will tell if the new schemes make any sense, I guess it’s unlikely that they will tackle the root of the problem for farmers, getting a fair price for their produce – which is often down to the power of the supermarkets to dictate and drive down prices. Plus everyone in the UK has got used to food being cheap.
Farming itself is pointing the way with initiatives like Groundswell, that promotes ‘the theory and practical applications of Conservation Agriculture or regenerative systems, including no-till, cover crops and re-introducing livestock into the arable rotation, with a view to improving soil health.’
