Farming fit: The Brexit workout to revamp the agriculture sector
Campaign to Protect Rural England
Top CPRE campaigner Graeme Willis explains to PoliticsHome's Emilio Casalicchio how working the land can offer a real workout, and how Brexit might bring the best out of the farming industry.
Cancel that gym membership and pick up a set of shears; farming is about to become the new pilates. The grand ambition is one of many the Campaign to Protect Rural England could be mulling over in a bid to revamp the agricultural sector through a series of fresh talking-point papers. The first, ‘New Model Farming: resilience through diversity’ landed on the desks of policy wonks this week, and according to senior CPRE campaigner Graeme Willis it will inject new ideas for rural England into the “policy bloodstream”.
From the international complexities of quitting the EU to the existential crisis of climate change, CPRE plans to provoke debate about how best to support small farms and transform the industry into a public good rather than “business as usual”, Willis tells PoliticsHome.
The paper launch was not directly inspired by Brexit, but naturally takes it into account as one of the major landscape shifts affecting the sector. CPRE never took a stance on an issue that split farmers, but Willis explains that with the right approach from government, leaving the EU has the potential to provide the boost the sector so badly needs.
“Big change actually brings big opportunities and generates real innovation and dynamism,” he says. “So we could see that coming out of Brexit as long as we have a period where people aren’t suddenly finding the rug has been pulled from under them in terms of funding. They have a chance to adapt and become really innovative and dynamic in how they farm and what they do with their land.”
Some of the details remain unclear, with CPRE unsure which form of EU trade deal would be best to “plunge for”. But on one fiscal point Willis is clear: Brexit offers the chance to reform the “flawed” Common Agricultural Policy system of funding for farmers. He explains that out of the £3bn a year from the CAP, about 80% goes to 20% of the largest farms, ensuring they get “bigger and bigger” while smaller operations struggle unless they can tap into niche markets.
“The taxpayer is paying money over to very rich land owners,” he explains. “If those land owners deliver great public benefits and they have large land areas, that's fantastic - they should get a lot of public funding for that for the public benefit. But not just to farm in a way that is business as usual.”
The drive towards “public benefit” is the second big shift in approach CPRE hopes to see, where industry is prompted to “ramp up the quality in what farming produces”. That could include environmental boosts such as clean water and better carbon storage in soil, Willis explains, as well as more recreational landscapes for people to enjoy.
The proposed fairer funding system and the focus on public good are geared towards getting more people into farming to help the industry thrive. After 34,000 farmers quit the business in recent years, Willis suggests a push for a “nation of farmers” is a good idea since Britain faces becoming a “nation of hardly any farmers”, adding: “We need to hang on to the ones we have got and create more opportunities.”
He says the queues to secure allotment space shows the “keenness to grow food” among the public. CPRE suggests that larger ‘starter plots’ could be the key people need to move towards setting up a small farming business, or taking on part time or even recreational farming work. “In a lot of farms many farmers supplement their incomes, but it could go the other way - with people working in another profession part time and in farming,” he says. “That has to be good for people. We have people going to gyms to get exercise - they could begin farming to get exercise… Clearly new blood, new thinking, new innovation would be a great way to make the industry more dynamic.”
Other CPRE hopes include the Government taking the lead on “shaping the market” with interventions in “food policy” to ensure public funding is as effective as possible. Better labelling, better regulation on trade between farms and a plan to tackle food waste are among the suggestions, as well as greater transparency over land ownership to help local groups secure patches for community farming use.
On the major concern of environmental threats, Willis refuses to beat around the bush. He highlights the risk of food shortages and lays out the challenge of “farming and nature working hand in hand to tackle what is going to be a huge problem coming down the track, which is climate change”. CPRE hopes for policy action to combat insect and species decline, soil degradation and nutrient management among other issues - areas for which Willis argues there has been no “plan of action” as yet.
He welcomes the move of climate policy into the Department for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, where he hopes it will find itself “at the heart” of commercial issues. But in a stark warning, he adds: “We used to talk about climate change being an issue the next generation will have to face - a transgenerational issue. And now we are facing it. We are. Not the next generation. Farming could do so much more to stop itself adding to the problem and to help reduce the risks.”
