#Brexit: What it means for agri-food
A silver lining in the Brexit cloud is that people can radically rethink how food, farming and the rural space operate in the UK. What will this mean for direct payments, for environmental regulations, for food security – and who will do the hard work of farming? Finally, is some of this blue sky thinking of interest to the rest of Europe?
Andrea Leadsom, the new Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, faces an unenviable task: putting farmers out of business. Those that survive will rely on advanced pesticides and intensified, genetically-modified crops. […]
The UK faces the prospect of rethinking its agriculture from scratch during the Brexit process. Less than a month after the vote, farming minister George Eustice told BBC Wales that he could not guarantee future agricultural support programmes would be as generous as current EU subsidies. […]
As has been the case with the UK’s new post-Brexit referendum Ministers, the now head of farming, food, rural affairs and environment has made some unusual utterances in the recent past. Peter Crosskey let’s us get to know Andrea Leadsom a little better. […]
The UK’s new Minister with responsibility for farming and food may want to change how CAP and subsidies work. Pillar 1 type payments may be dropped and the delicate balance between farming and nature – especially on farms – may change radically. Miles King explains. […]
by Tim Lang, City University London The situation created by the British vote to leave the European Union is momentous for UK food. It is on a par with the Repeal of the Corn Laws of 1846 when Britain decided its Empire could feed it, not its own farmers. And it is as important as the creation of the Agriculture Act of 1947 when after two bruising wars in which the population faced serious risk of starvation, the country decided to put its food house in order – to produce more of what it could and look after the land. Those events set the tone and framework for UK food for decades after. Brexit will do the same. It doesn’t help that the political elites are now knifing each other in a distraction from the genuine, looming effects. My concern is that the security of food might get lost in the debacle. The UK must not let that happen. Food stocks are low in a just-in-time economy, an estimated three to five days’ worth. The […]
ARC2020’s President Hannes Lorenzen gives us his thoughts after Brexit.
After the Brexit bombshell, ARC2020’s Peter Crosskey tells us how the UK farming community is reacting to vote to leave Europe. […]
Once paragraph four is taken into account, there is no role for the UK government to play in discussing the terms of the settlement that will be negotiated by the 27 remaining members of the European Union. Within a two-year window the UK will have to accept whatever is handed down by the remaining member states. […]
As the crucial UK vote on staying in or leave the EU edges closer, UK resident and ARC2020 columnist Peter Crosskey makes some observations about Brexit, agri-food, media bias and – importantly – Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty. […]
A 13-strong pop-up panel convened on May 12, in an event organised by Food Research Collaboration and Coventry University’s Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience (CAWR), heard evidence on Brexit and agri-food. How did they vote? Peter Crosskey attended. […]
The National Farmers Union, representing 50,000 of the largest and wealthiest farming landowners in England (and Wales), who receive the lion’s share of all subsidies provided to the UK by the EU, have voted to support the Remain campaign. How and why has this happened? Miles King explains. […]
The agricultural sector in Northern Ireland depends on EU funding for 85% of its income, disbelieving UK parliamentarians learnt from the province’s farmers’ leaders. What do farmers’ representatives think of Brexit? […]
n a bid to bring some facts to a heated discussion that has yet to cover food production, Food Research Collaboration academics Dr Victoria Schoen and Professor Tim Lang have released a briefing paper to inform discussions of the food issues that membership of the EU raises for UK citizens. […]
The European Milk Board calls for a European Union that acts in favour of the common good and well-being of its citizens and shows solidarity while upholding peace and harmony. EU agricultural policy cannot be used as a tool to pit European producers against each other! […]
Brexit – US trade chief tells UK to “stay in EU”. Would TTIP lock the UK out of global trade, post #Brexit? And what does the EU do for the UK re agri payments anyway? […]
Agricultural and Rural Convention