Learn from the past - protecting the interests of food, feed and agriculture now we’ve left the EU
Paul Featherstone, Director at SugaRich
Brexit has happened. As we enter our transition period during 2020, all eyes are on our capacity to make viable trade deals to see Britain through as we go it alone. When it comes to our agricultural sector, it’s not a comforting
thought to stare into the abyss of no trade agreement with any country in the world. How will we feed 66.5 million1 people, without home grown food in the UK? Of course, the recent melee caused by a Defra adviser, suggesting
that agriculture in the UK is of no necessity, has not helped the situation. Suggesting that we might well survive, without investing in and nurturing a sector that utilises 75% of the land, with an accommodating climate, seems like a waste of valuable resource. UK agriculture was last recorded as providing 50% of our food needs, supported by the fishing industry. Overall, agriculture contributed around £24 billion of revenues and around £8.5 billion of Gross Value Added to the UK economy in 2015 according to available statistics.2 I say that UK agriculture has a role to play as a part of the global
agriculture arena. In the midst of the sabre rattling between the EU and UK, the seriousness of how we should develop our agricultural policy going forward is being overshadowed. Furthermore, we are a world of finite resources and we must be
mindful of the hard work that has been undertaken in the sector that enshrined the benefits of the circular economy. It therefore follows that the place of former foodstuffs has to be prevalent in everyone’s mind when it concerns feed – we are not just feeding humans but our animals too. The basis of these resources has to be protected. I think it would be careless not to consider the benefits that we have negotiated thus far as we make provisions to feed our UK population. Besides, our head count is not projected to slow down, but it will grow to an estimated 69.8 million by 2028. Planning of resources is essential. In February 2020, during the frisson in the media over the
‘importance’ of British farming, it was highly commendable of the President of the NFU to defend agriculture and farmers by giving dissenters short shrift. However, she should not be a lone voice. All of the interested parties, need to be equally as strong; a cohesive voice needs to speak up for UK agriculture to preserve it and its role across different sectors.
What now, in transition? During the transition period of our Brexit departure, maintaining harmonious relationships for trade is vital. More important, is the preservation of the high standards of regulation, legislation and
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collective research that underpin safety in our food and feed sectors. I hold out hope that there won’t be abandonment of elements of feed and food safety that would continue to positively impact our standards in either sector. This is specifically relevant when we consider the challenges
ahead, and the difficult discussions we must have. Consider the role of processed animal proteins in feed, insect protein as feed, contaminants and disease control. We’ve got to be ready to face them head on, in a timely, unified manner. If we don’t maintain a rigorous standard of regulation, then we start to revisit common threats seen in Europe and the UK the past, which would cause dismal, and dare I say, possibly calamitous problems for the future. Problems that we have overcome and controlled in Europe, such as swine fever, which decimated China’s pig population in 2019 by 40%, causing billions of dollars of loss, would not be welcome. Here in the UK we learned our lesson after the foot and mouth epidemic in 2001, which was caused by swill feeding3. It’s not just about the biological cost, there is an economic factor to consider as well by letting regulations slip and damaging our agricultural sector. Covid-19, which can jump from animals to humans surely makes
us ask what the implications are for our food chain. Are we then not compelled to keep livestock in as sanitary, healthy, and humane environments as possible to avoid cross contamination throughout the supply chain. In the end, the way that we are going to endure after Brexit is with
rigorous planning, preservation of best practice and legislation that has served us well for years, under the EU. We have a good foundation to build upon, so let’s not look at the past as an irrelevance just because we have left the EU. The regulatory infrastructure that we have put in place will inform the success of our future and how we evolve. Hopefully we have formed strong enough bonds so our trading aspirations will be well met and so we can go it alone successfully. Relationships notwithstanding, holding fast to, and building upon the fundamentally sound values that have kept our food and feed sectors strong for so long will be the star to guide our ship by.
1.
https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/ populationandmigration/populationestimates/ar ticles/ overviewoftheukpopulation/august2019 2.
https://www.nfuonline.com/nfu-online/news/report-21117- contributions-of-uk-agriculture/ 3.
http://adlib.everysite.co.uk/resources/000/095/936/fmdorigins1.pdf
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