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Upland Farmers Face Harsh Realities in Post-Brexit England | Part 1

In July 2023, Marianne Landzettel travelled to Northumberland, England to meet and interview four farm families. The resulting story portrays the difficulties upland farmers face as they navigate compounding crises. The phasing out of EU direct payments and their replacement with a system based on ‘public money for public goods’, combine with high input costs, extreme weather events, and increased market competition to threaten farm futures. […]

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Post-Brexit Farm Policy – Outlook Across Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales

What’s on the cards for farm policy in the UK nations post-Brexit and post-CAP? In the first part of this series, Ursula Billington reported on the state of play for England’s small-scale farmers and horticulturists. In Part 2, she talks to representatives from the Landworkers Alliance in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales to gauge the situation in the devolved nations.  […]

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Post-Brexit Farm Policy – Where Do England’s Smallholdings and Horticulture Sector Stand?

In the UK, farm policy is a devolved responsibility, so the governments of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are each working at their own pace and to their own vision of post-Brexit agricultural reform. In this article, the first of a two-part series, Ursula Billington presents the state of play in England, the nation so far taking the most novel approach. […]

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Brexit Bites – Farming in Britain after CAP

On 26 January, the future of post-Brexit agricultural policy in England became clearer with the government’s announcement of six new standards under its Sustainable Farming Incentive. While English farmers may cautiously welcome this long-awaited update, serious challenges remain for the sector in England, and across the United Kingdom. Marianne Landzettel reports.  […]

Latest from the ARC network

Passing of Michael Dower, a European Englishman

Michael Dower has sadly passed away. Co-founder of the European AgriCultural Convention (EAC), which later became ARC2020, Michael stood staunchly for rural Europe, democracy, inclusion, and taking action now. His retirement marked the beginning of a fruitful career as a European convener, co-founding PREPARE and a number of other networks that punched well above their weight. Hannes Lorenzen remembers a European Englishman and friend. […]

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UK | The Grassroots Groups Shifting Ground on Land Justice

The racialised history of British soil has consequences that are very much felt today. However where industrial scale farming is failing, the grassroots is doing what it does best, building fertile ground for a new food system that nurtures diversity. High-profile agroecology events such as this weekend’s Land Skills Fair are spotlighting land justice. This is thanks to the work of many projects that together are gradually shifting the ground for land justice. Ursula Billington reports. […]

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UK | Truth Waits In All Things

What’s next for our countrysides? Before we even begin to consider re-scaling the rural, we must slow down and work in deep collaboration and coproduction – with all. This requires deep listening to the voices on the ground. But also trusting farmers and artists, who are skilled at working alongside and within communities, human and nonhuman. Otherwise we will continue to do the countryside a disservice, argues Kate Genever. […]

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UK | Hemp – Overgrowing the Regime part 2

For many growers it’s a plant with huge potential. For many policymakers it’s a dangerous drug. Despite a lack of tools, knowledge, infrastructure and support, woefully few routes to market, and suffocating restrictions on production and use of the crop, meet the British hemp growers who are ploughing ahead. Now a campaign of civil disobedience hopes to provoke policymakers to rethink regulations. Story by Ursula Billington. Second in a two-part series. […]

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UK | Hemp – Overgrowing the Regime part 1

Hemp is an ‘ecological wonder plant’ with almost endless potential as a sustainable raw fibre material, not to mention its intriguing nutrient profile and therapeutic benefits. It can even decontaminate radioactive soil. Yet in many jurisdictions, hemp production is hampered by baffling constraints. Where UK farming policy appears to bypass common sense, growers are taking the law into their own hands. […]

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Down to the Ground – Green Medicine for the People!

Health is a human right, not a privilege. Herbalists Without Borders work to deliver health justice to displaced and disadvantaged people via the powerful medium of herbs. Through valuing indigenous healing wisdom, producing medicine from plants gives vulnerable people a renewed sense of control over their environment and personal health. Herbalism also fosters a renewed connection to the landscape from which everyone can benefit. Ursula Billington has more. […]