Defra: Farming is Changing

[Chris F]

From their tweet today:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1164420686640640000

Farming is changing. Leaving the EU means we can design our own #agricultural policy to support the #farming industry. We plan to:

• phase out and ‘delink’ Direct Payments
• improve regulation
• launch the new Environmental Land Management scheme

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/future-farming-changes-to-farming-in-england

 

[Formatted]

If you fancy reading the details of it all, check out the ag bill - https://services.parliament.uk/bills/2017-19/agriculture.html

 

[Chris F]

If you fancy reading the details of it all, check out the ag bill - https://services.parliament.uk/bills/2017-19/agriculture.html

Yep, I would hope most farmers will, as it will change their lives.

 

[renewablejohn]

Lets hope it includes all farmers and does not exclude the 16500 small farmers declared not worthy of any help because they dont have 5 hectares of eligible land. I know its different rules for different parts of uk but even that is immoral.

 

[farmerm]

Yep, I would hope most farmers will, as it will change their lives.

for the better or for the worse...?

 

[farmerm]

Fudging hell, it is no so much legislation ends up being not fit for purpose... how do MPs who have no interest, experience or expertise in a 99% of a given subject even start to comprehend a 10th of the bills they are expected to vote on? I only got a few pages in before loosing the will to live! apart from a 7 year phasing out of direct subsidies starting from 2021, what else is in there?

 

[Steevo]

"improve regulation" is rather vague....!

Tighten?
Relax?
Simplify?
Make more complex?
Keep the same but make clearer?
Reduce?
Increase?


Any of the above could be termed "improve" depending on your perspective.

 

[steveR]

for the better or for the worse...?

Who knows.... cerain fact that TPTB haven't a bloody clue.

We will be pushed down an Agenda mapped route, and it is not farmers who will be creating the Agenda...

 

[farmerm]

"improve regulation" is rather vague....!

Tighten?
Relax?
Simplify?
Make more complex?
Keep the same but make clearer?
Reduce?
Increase?


Any of the above could be termed "improve" depending on your perspective.

You only have to consider that the people who will draft the "improved regulations" are the same people who draft Bills, concepts such as relax or simplify are rather alien to such folk.

 

[Pan mixer]

A potentially oxymoronic statement;

"More collaborative" and one paragraph later -

"Less bureaucratic" Hmmmm

Lump sum payments starting from 2021 to get out and leave the land with no future of any kind of subsidy? A bit like taking the lump sum payment for, say, a pylon and leaving the awkwardness to someone else for nothing?

All round a whole lot of platitudes about how lovely things will be for everyone, producers, watchers of Countryfile, regulators, the list goes on.

Looks like it is a framework to be wonderful for anyone who cares to look, I am not sure whether that is ever going to be achievable however the intentions look good.

I already farm in an environmentally friendly way, I hope that this will be supported too as well as supporting those who have yet to see the light.

 

[farmerm]

Who knows.... cerain fact that TPTB haven't a bloody clue.

We will be pushed down an Agenda mapped route, and it is not farmers who will be creating the Agenda...

The Agenda is driven by either the mega rich than can use their money to overtly or covertly influence or the green lobby who have nothing else to do with their time.

 

[Chris F]

for the better or for the worse...?

If you don't read it, then for the worse for sure.

 

[DrWazzock]

Lump sum payment to get out? How much?

 

[DrWazzock]

I find the whole approach very presumptious and patronising. "Farming is changing." Well actually it's still in private hands here and I'll change it if I decide to change it and I'm not really interested in what others think they want me to do, looking in as uninformed amateurs from the outside.

It's pretty simple at moment other than for the unwanted interference we already have to put up with. We grow crops and livestock and people buy them, just like they've done for hundreds of years. I can't see a good reason for changing that.

I often think if DEFRA disappeared overnight, would anybody really notice other than the payment cheque wouldn't turn up and it noise and bumf would finish. How much does it take to write a cheque once a year. Not a lot but they don't half make a meal out of it.

So yet again we see the bureaucratic dinosaur trying to postpone extinction by creating yet another bright new future for itself.

 

[Jackov Altraids]

I'll translate the little video message for you.

If we leave the EU

We won't be able to blame Brussels anymore

We know the CAP was crap

But we need to keep all those employed to administrate it busy.

We will think of a way to keep you under control

By paying you to do whatever the focus groups suggest is most popular with voters.

We won't be able to blame the EU for regulations and inspections,

so we will 'consult' you so you can carry the blame for the extra red tape.

When you are all broke and desperate in a few years

we will offer environmental options which will basically nationalise land ownership.

Best wishes, deafra/ deathra

 

[PaulNix]

The Agenda is driven by either the mega rich than can use their money to overtly or covertly influence or the green lobby who have nothing else to do with their time.

I got a feeling the green lobby is actually getting used pretty effectively by a section of the mega rich to get them what they want, two choices for land use, left to go wild ( as not profitable to do anything on it ) or land full of subsidised solar panels, turbines, AD crops or tree's all in their control with open access for all to placate the green lobby until such a time they want to cover it with concrete for development.

 

[Greythundercloudys]

Every farmer in this 60s with no son interested in the farm should take the lump sum. But the first thing they do with it is buy a new tractor and farm away till its done.
How much an acre is the lumb sum anyways.?

 

[Chris F]

I find the whole approach very presumptious and patronising. "Farming is changing." Well actually it's still in private hands here and I'll change it if I decide to change it and I'm not really interested in what others think they want me to do, looking in as uninformed amateurs from the outside.

It's pretty simple at moment other than for the unwanted interference we already have to put up with. We grow crops and livestock and people buy them, just like they've done for hundreds of years. I can't see a good reason for changing that.

I often think if DEFRA disappeared overnight, would anybody really notice other than the payment cheque wouldn't turn up and it noise and bumf would finish. How much does it take to write a cheque once a year. Not a lot but they don't half make a meal out of it.

So yet again we see the bureaucratic dinosaur trying to postpone extinction by creating yet another bright new future for itself.

But that’s the point. They write the cheques.

So all farmers have to follow the rules to get paid. If you don’t want the cheque you can quite rightly do whatever you want. If you want the cheque then you “may” have to change the way you farm. Some are farming that way already.

Not going to disagree that it’s a bloated system though.

 

[farmerm]

But that’s the point. They write the cheques.

So all farmers have to follow the rules to get paid. If you don’t want the cheque you can quite rightly do whatever you want. If you want the cheque then you “may” have to change the way you farm. Some are farming that way already.

Not going to disagree that it’s a bloated system though.

“If you don’t want the cheque you can do what you want” really? More like you can do a little more of what you want... only 2 groups can do get away doing what ever they want, the mega Rich and those who tow their homes and ponies behind transit vans.

 

[Chris F]

“If you don’t want the cheque you can do what you want” really? More like you can do a little more of what you want... only 2 groups can do get away doing what ever they want, the mega Rich and those who tow their homes and ponies behind transit vans.

Very true!