Brexit And Agriculture

This book provides a multidisciplinary analysis of the impact of Brexit on British agriculture and associated areas, discussing the Common Agricultural Policy and the Agriculture Act 2020. The Brexit referendum provoked new debates and questions over the future of agriculture in Britain and the potential positive and negative impacts of Brexit on both farmers and consumers. These debates, as well as the ensuing proposals relevant to the Agriculture Act 2020, have exposed the multidimensional effects of Brexit when it comes to agriculture. With a focus on profitability, the rights of farmers, environmental protection, as well as animal welfare, this book brings together an interdisciplinary analysis of the future of British agriculture in post-Brexit Britain. More specifically, it addresses the criticisms over the Common Agriculture Policy, presents an analysis of the Agriculture Act 2020, and considers suggestions for future developments. Through this analysis, the book suggests a way towards the future, with a positive outlook towards a competitive and sustainable agriculture that will satisfy the needs of farmers and consumers while ensuring environmental protection, animal welfare, and rural development. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of food and agricultural policy and politics, agroecology and rural development, as well as policymakers involved in Britain’s post-Brexit environmental policy.

The 2016 referendum resulted in a vote for the United Kingdom to withdraw from the European Union. This has led to frenzied political debate across the whole spectrum of policy, and agriculture is no exception. For the first time in a generation, the future of agriculture is unclear and unfettered by the constraints and incrementalism of the Common Agricultural Policy. This book makes an empirical contribution to the Brexit debate, bringing a social dimension to agri-Brexit and sustainable agriculture discourses. Understanding the social in the context of farmers is vital to developing a way forward on food security and agricultural sustainability. Farmers are the recipients of the market and policy signals that link to global uncertainties and challenges. This book is a commitment to understanding farmers as occupiers and managers of land. Chapters in this book explore farmers’ own aspirations and knowledge about patterns of land use and production, which underpin discussions around the environment and sustainability. There is a deficit in understanding what kind of agricultural industry we now have, following years of restructuring and repositioning. This book is an attempt to address that deficit and will appeal to students and researchers exploring agriculture, food politics and rural sociology.

Brexit is shaking the foundations of UK agriculture to the core. The EU market, laws and policies, including the Common Agricultural Policy, shaped the evolution of UK agriculture for decades. Brexit creates a partial vacuum that simultaneously poses considerable opportunities and challenges for the UK; it raises fundamental questions regarding whether to have a centralised or devolved approach, what objectives and standards to strive for, what markets to target, what is permissible or feasible and, crucially, how the law will stand post Brexit. National politics, the future relationship with the EU, international (trade) law, food safety and quality, sustainable agriculture and environmental protection are only some of the relevant considerations. This book addresses these questions and analyses the UK government's attempts to address the uncertainties through the Agriculture Bill. It outlines the potential for a Domestic Agricultural Policy embracing agri-sustainability and how this new policy might be shaped to achieve a more sustainable food future.

"Acknowledging the challenges and opportunities raised by Brexit for the agri-food supply chain and agricultural policies across the UK, this book provides the first in-depth analysis of agricultural policy developments across the UK's four nations rooted in strong theoretical and practical underpinnings. Arguing that the four nations could be more ambitious in departing from the Common Agricultural Policy and extending beyond the 'public money for public goods' approach adopted across the UK, it critiques the core attributes of their policies with focuses including the debate over outcome-based schemes, governance mechanisms, impacts on farm diversity and path dependency on the Common Agricultural Policy and English approaches. It promotes a 'resilient agriculture' paradigm and utilises social-ecological services, net zero, agroecology and agri-food democracy as the main pathways to achieve this. In doing so, it scrutinises the evolving contextual, political and legal landscape within which devolved and UK agricultural policies are developing from a multilevel governance perspective, examining the implications of WTO law for the UK and its devolved administrations to determine environmental, food and animal welfare standards under the GATT, the SPS and TBT Agreements and financial support schemes under the Agreement on Agriculture. The book assesses the significance of the Northern Ireland Protocol, the Trade and Cooperation Agreement with the EU and other free trade agreements for standards across the UK and access to markets. From a domestic perspective, challenges to devolution and the stability of the Union are highlighted. Elements of unilateral recentralisation are visible via financing mechanisms, the UK Internal Market Act and the Agriculture Act"--

In this the fifth Bite-Sized Brexit Book, a wide range of authors, from across the United Kingdom, assess the impact of Brexit on UK farming - and come to different, sometimes contradictory, conclusions, all of which are challenging, thought-provoking and well-argued.As the Introduction says: "It is hard to imagine a farm policy more idiotic than the current Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). Since 2005, the EU has paid out 64bn a year of taxpayers' money to farmers for doing nothing more than occupy their land. To receive this money from the CAP's 'Basic Payment Scheme', farmland 'occupiers' have not been required to reduce greenhouse gas emissions or other forms of farm pollution, reverse the decline of flora and fauna on their land, or even produce food."So why is there such intense anxiety in the UK, reflected in the apocalyptic title of this book, about what the repatriation of UK farm policy post-Brexit might lead to? Could a UK-devised policy possibly be any worse than the current CAP?"The author of the introduction, Bio-Waste Spreader (Stephen Carr) of "Private Eye", brings into play the conflicting arguments, resolutions and ideas that are explored in this really vital contribution to the whole Brexit debate.

How does Britain get its food? Why is our current system at breaking point? How can we fix it before it is too late? British food has changed remarkably in the last half century. As we have become wealthier and more discerning, our food has Europeanized (pizza is children's favourite food) and internationalized (we eat the world's cuisines), yet our food culture remains fragmented, a mix of mass 'ultra-processed' substances alongside food as varied and good as anywhere else on the planet. This book takes stock of the UK food system: where it comes from, what we eat, its impact, fragilities and strengths. It is a book on the politics of food. It argues that the Brexit vote will force us to review our food system. Such an opportunity is sorely needed. After a brief frenzy of concern following the financial shock of 2008, the UK government has slumped once more into a vague hope that the food system will keep going on as before. Food, they said, just required a burst of agri-technology and more exports to pay for our massive imports. Feeding Britain argues that this and other approaches are short-sighted, against the public interest, and possibly even strategic folly. Setting a new course for UK food is no easy task but it is a process, this book urges, that needs to begin now. 'Tim Lang has performed a public service' Simon Jenkins, Sunday Times