This hard-Brexit cabinet could spell disaster for British farmers
Really thought provoking think piece. This article offers the following view:
Ever since Britain voted to leave the EU three long years ago, those involved in farming have been aware that we are facing a fork in the road. One path offers the opportunity to build on our country’s comparatively high standards and compete on quality, sustainability and animal welfare. The other road requires us to sign up to free trade agreements on terms that suit our competitors, opening our borders to the worst horrors of industrial farming, symbolised (perhaps unfairly) by the spectre of chlorine-washed chicken. This would push British farmers either to lower their standards to compete or drive them out of business altogether.
The starting gun for the race to the bottom has been loaded. Almost every informed party agreed with the verdict of the House of Commons environment, food and rural affairs committee last year that it is vital to “ensure that trade agreements demand that imported products meet our standards, and avoid a regulatory race to the bottom”. This reflects a broader growing consensus that there is no future in farming that requires huge quantities of synthetic fertilisers, land used to grow grain to feed to livestock locked up in sheds and acres of single-crop monocultures that are devoid of insects and wildlife.
It used to be only fringe environmental groups that made such a case. Now even the National Farmers’ Union buys it. Under the enlightened leadership of Minette Batters, it has committed to making UK farming net zero in terms of greenhouse gas emissions by 2040. It has made friends of old adversaries such as the Soil Association, which certifies organic goods in the UK, and the Sustainable Food Trust. The RSA is on the same page. Its Food, Farming and Countryside Commission recently issued a final report that called, among other things, for a transition plan for sustainable, agroecological farming by 2030.
None of these goals, however, can be reached without regulatory and government support. The greatest source of hope that this might be forthcoming was that the then environment secretary, Michael Gove, also seemed to be on board. In conversations with senior food and sustainability leaders, I have frequently been told that they think his commitment is genuine. The question was always whether he would be able to take the government with him. In a standoff with free-market fundamentalists such as Liam Fox, would Gove prevail?
Today the question is irrelevant. Gove is out, replaced by Theresa Villiers, whose track record is weak on the environment and strong on free trade. The starting gun for their race to the bottom has been loaded. Should it be fired, the consequences could be dire.