Government promises profitable farming post-Brexit
I find this all very confusing. Is Defra in favour of paying for more food or more environment- and if the answer is both how are the two things to be reconciled???? This article tells us:
The government will take steps to ensure farms can operate profitably after Brexit, the environment secretary has insisted, as MPs challenged ministers to keep taxpayer funding for agriculture after EU subsidies are withdrawn.
Michael Gove said food production was at the heart of British farming. He told the all-party parliamentary environment group: “It would be impossible to sustain everything we value in rural Britain without thriving food production. And we need a balance [with environmental protection].”
His insistence on food at the core of the agriculture remit of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) will be welcomed by farmers, who have seen lower productivity in recent years and were concerned by his previous emphasis on the environmental responsibilities of farming. Gove has repeatedly said subsidies would be given on condition of delivering “public goods” such as biodiversity – meaning they would cease to receive subsidies for producing food.
These concerns were reflected in a report published on Wednesday by MPs which said taxpayer funding would still be needed after the UK leaves the common agricultural policy (CAP) and such support should be ring-fenced in government budgets.
The environment, food and rural affairs committee found, in a report published on Wednesday, that the government’s plans for farming after Brexit have so far been vague and demanded further detail on what funding would be available after Brexit. Farmers currently receive £3bn in annual subsidies from the EU.