opinion THE AGRICULTURE BILL
DEFRA published its Agriculture Bill, introduced to the House of Commons and given its First Reading on Wednesday 12 September 2018. Following the Bill’s formal publication, its second reading took place on Wednesday 10 October 2018. Saying how grateful he was to those whose hard work had gone
into the preparation of the Bill, including those who had contributed to DEFRA’s consultation paper, ‘Health and Harmony’, Mr Gove said that, above all, he was grateful to farmers whom he described as ‘Britain’s backbone and on whom we are reliant for the food that we enjoy and for the health of our rural economy and society’. He went on to say that ‘every measure in the Bill is designed to ensure that our farmers receive the support that they deserve to give us the healthy food that we enjoy and the beautiful rural environment on which we all depend’. An important matter raised during the debate was the future
of the current method of subsidising farms where, according to one source, the top ten per cent of the recipients receive fifty per cent of the cash while the bottom twenty per cent receive just two per cent. This, according to the source in question is: ‘a situation that only a fool could defend’. Mr Gove, perhaps gratuitously, pointed out that ‘we provide for all UK farmers a greater guarantee of future funding than farmers anywhere else in the European Union enjoy. Our funding is guaranteed until 2022, whereas in the EU the current common agricultural policy is guaranteed only to 2020’. Mr Gove went on to note that, under the current arrangements, public money – taxpayers’ money – was allocated purely on the basis of the size of an agricultural land holding. Many of the beneficiaries were not even UK or EU citizens but foreign citizens who happen to have invested in agricultural land. This publication believes that this unacceptable situation can be remedied early in the transitional arrangements which are scheduled to be completed by 2022. But the question of the support available to British farmers during
the transitional period and beyond raises an important, not to say, fundamental point. And it is not gainsaid by the fact that the livestock feed industry and the agricultural supply trade in general have a clear vested interest in the outcome of the debate which the Agricultural Bill has initiated. There are those who will argue that the UK should move towards a system where the national food supply can be sourced as cheaply as possible: a ‘minimalist’ agricultural policy. This ignores the fact that many of the countries that some quarters within the UK regard as future trading partners – the U.S. in particular – are likely to
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demand a significant degree of ‘liberalisation’ where their agricultural exports to the UK are concerned, as part of any broadly-based trade agreement.
Reactions were predictable, albeit the debate was not as
dominated by the environment and other matters as alleged in some quarters. Nevertheless, it was evident that some MPs were concerned about the failure of the bill to ‘recognise the central importance of UK sustainable food production and supply, leading to a greater reliance on imports’. Another point, as regards the environment, was that, as Minette Batters, President of the National Farmers Union sagely pointed out, that ‘farmers cannot be green if they are in the red’. At present, emphasis appears to be aimed at phasing out the
current and, admittedly, unsatisfactory system of direct payments, particularly as regards payments based on area rather than agricultural production. What will be at the centre of the debate over the forthcoming months will be what will replace the current system. It seems most unlikely, in a Brexit that is dominated by the desirability of moving towards a globally trading UK, that agriculture in this country will be protected by tariffs aimed at securing the financial viability of the UK’s agricultural sector and, by extension, its suppliers, including the livestock feed industry. Assuming that this is the background against which future agricultural policy will be formulated, the primary concern of policy makers will be how to direct the implicit need for support to British farmers and, by extension, to their suppliers. It is worth remembering at this point that the UK has a long history of providing support for farmers and it is significant that, during the debate on the second reading of the Agricultural Bill, Mr Gove observed that ‘if we want all the environmental benefits that our farmers can produce, because they are responsible for 70 per cent of the landscape of the United Kingdom, we must ensure that farms remain profitable businesses.’ In this regard, it is particularly notable that small farmers and farmers in environmentally challenging areas such as the hills are only economic propositions when direct payments are included in their accounts. Having been read the second time, the Bill was duly dispatched
to the Committee stage, where it will remain until 20 November. It is earnestly to be hoped that some of the foregoing points will be incorporated in any revised edition of the Agriculture Bill. Both farmers and their suppliers in the UK will hope that indications of the direction of the UK’s future agricultural policy will emerge sooner rather than later, so that the necessary adaptations can be initiated in good time and in as organised a fashion as possible.
Comment section is sponsored by Compound Feed Engineering Ltd
www.cfegroup.com
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