New UK Agriculture Bill changes “inefficient and overly bureaucratic” policy

17 Jan 2020 --- As part of new measures to ensure food security post-Brexit, the UK government is enforcing a new Agriculture Bill, which in the future will be rewarding farmers and land managers in England with public money for “public goods” – such as better air and water quality, higher animal welfare standards, improved access to the countryside or measures to reduce flooding. Moving forward, the “landmark legislation” will be switching out the nation’s current subsidy system, which unfavorably benefits large landowners rather than farmers delivering these specified public benefits.

The UK Agriculture Bill was first introduced before Parliament in 2018 in setting out a major policy to invest in the environment and “take back control for farmers after almost 50 years under EU rule.” However, local farmers at the time were vocal about concerns the new legislation would not be enough to compete in volatile post-Brexit market. Concerns about a national labor deficit amid lagging exports continued into the previous year. Today, representatives of the nation’s food and beverage sector convey a more confident sentiment.

“To be able to play their part in producing healthy food, restoring nature and tackling climate change, farming must have more certainty and decent livelihoods. Sustain is therefore very pleased to see the Government maintain the commitments on regulating the supply chain (the Fair Dealing clause 27) in order to drive out unfair practices – which harm farmers here and overseas, limit their options for investing in sustainable practices and lead to shocking amounts of food going to waste,” responds Vicki Hird, Sustainable Farming Campaign Coordinator of the UK agri-food alliance Sustain.

“As our alliance has strongly advocated, the government has now amended the earlier Bill text to take account of Sustain’s concerns so that all sellers of agricultural produce will qualify for protection from abuse by all ‘business purchasers.’ The Bill also clarifies that new statutory codes can protect farmers on a range of issues, not just those listed. We look forward to seeing the detail on how this will be delivered and enforced,” she adds.

The UK Agriculture Bill was first introduced to“take back control for farmers after almost 50 years under EU rule.” Strengthening farmers’ negotiating position
By collecting data from across the supply chain, the UK government is seeking to help food producers strengthen their negotiating position at the farm gate and seek a fairer return. In order to spend more on boosting productivity and environmental benefits, Direct Payments will be phased out over an agricultural transition period, which is due to start in 2021 and run for seven years.

Later in the agricultural transition, the British government plans to fully “de-link” Direct Payments from the requirement to farm the land, a requirement that currently exists under EU law. This will replace the current subsidy system of Direct Payments which pays farmers for the total amount of land farmed, skewing payments towards the largest landowners rather than those farmers delivering specific public benefits. In turn, this provides farmers with greater flexibility to plan for their future as these payments can be used by farmers to invest in their business, diversify their activities or help new people enter the sector.“A future where farmers are properly supported to farm more innovatively and protect the environment is a step closer today following the introduction of the Agriculture Bill.

The landmark legislation introduced will provide a boost to the industry after years of inefficient and overly bureaucratic policy dictated to farmers by the EU,” states the UK Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra).

UK industry rallies behind Agriculture Bill
Representatives of the UK food and beverage sector have openly welcomed the new wide-sweeping policy shift. “UK food and drink manufacturers purchase the majority of what UK farmers grow and produce. We will work closely with our friends in the NFU to ensure the UK's future food and agriculture policy delivers for all parts of our £121 billion [US$158.1 billion] food supply chain,” says Ian Wright, Chief Executive of the UK Food and Drink Federation (FDF).

Adjunctly, the Sustain alliance also welcomes the inclusion of financial rewards for soil protection in the Bill and the need to raise awareness of agroecology. However, the organization notes that Defra is still working on what exactly they will subsidize farmers to do. “We want to see tangible measures to help all farmers and growers adopt agro-ecological practices to tackle the climate and nature emergency while producing healthy food that everyone needs,” stresses Hird.

“The new legal commitment to produce regular Food Security Reviews included in the Agriculture Bill is welcome and will need to encompass the impacts of climate change such as flooding, drought, changing seasons and extreme weather events; as well as biodiversity loss, such as declines in beneficial insects and pollinators on the resilience and diversity of our food supply,” she asserts.

Crucially, Hird outlines the need to see a multi-annual budget to deliver the necessary public outcomes and which can ensure a fair transition for farmers. The Bill now has a welcome clause obliging the Secretary of State to produce “multiannual financial assistance plans” that will go some way to achieving this.

“We did want to ensure farm workers are adequately protected under the UK's new agricultural policy regime, to ensure decent wages and employment conditions. Sadly, this type of protection remains absent from drafts of the Agriculture Bill, leaving us to wonder: why would anyone want to pick our crops?”

“The elephant in the room is the implications of trade deals, and whether UK farmers will have to compete with low standard, low welfare imports produced in ways that would be illegal in this country. We need to see a legal framework to ensure this cannot happen,” Hird concludes.

By Benjamin Ferrer