You must earn your keep after Brexit, farmers told.

Robigus

Member
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/n...rn-their-taxpayer-cash-after-brexit-bddslrjz5

You must earn your keep after Brexit, farmers told
Ben Webster, Environment Editor


November 12 2016, 12:01am, The Times

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Minette Batters said that farmers faced fierce competition for limited funding following Brexit BEN GURR/THE TIMES​

Farmers will lose most of their direct subsidies after Brexit and must do more to prove that any remaining support delivers public benefits, a farmers’ leader has said.

More than £2 billion a year is paid to farmers based on the amount of land they own but Minette Batters, deputy president of the National Farmers’ Union, accepted that these payments would all but disappear once Britain left the EU. The National Trust and many campaign groups have already called for an end to these “basic payments”. Ms Batters revealed that the farming industry also accepted the need for radical reform of subsidies.

In an interview with The Times, she admitted that farmers faced fierce competition for limited public funds after Brexit. The most likely outcome of the government’s review of subsidies was a “very narrow layer similar to basic payment but probably a lot, lot less”.

She said: “We have got to look at this from a really economic angle: what are we delivering? The trouble with the European model, the basic payment, is that nobody has any idea where that money is going and what they are getting for it. When you have others fighting for funds, such as the NHS, you have to have far closer analysis of where those funds are going, and rightly so.”

She said that most farmers recognised the need for reform. “On the whole our farmers embrace the opportunity to have something that works for the UK. We can now do something that is actually going to work for the UK whereas before we were trying to work with appeasement that keep 28 countries on board.”

Ms Batters, who has a beef herd on a 120-hectare farm in Wiltshire and is tipped to be the next NFU leader, said there was a strong case to maintain subsidies but farmers would have to work harder to justify them. The EU’s common agricultural policy costs the average citizen 23p a day, she added.

“You have to look at what you are getting for that 23p. That’s quality water, healthy soils, a safe food system. I think you can make a new case for what we are all getting for that investment.”

The Treasury has pledged to maintain subsidies at the same level for the next four years but the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs is considering how to reform the system after 2020.

Ms Batters said that more subsidy should be directed to attracting young farmers, with a “top-up” payment for those under 30. “We have got to look at how we bring young people into the sector. We have an ageing farming population,” she said. The average age is 59; many work into their eighties.

She dismissed claims by pro-Brexit campaigners, including Nigel Farage, former Ukip leader, that leaving the EU would result in cheaper food. “What do they mean by that? Presumably they mean [from] countries that have very different standards to what the UK has.”

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EDITORIAL

November 12 2016, 12:01am, the times
Betting the Farm

leading article

Brexit presents an opportunity to craft a smarter agricultural policy

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The average British farmer makes more money from European subsidies than from farming. When Britain leaves the EU, that money will vanish. Ministers have promised to cover the shortfall until 2020, but as Minette Batters, of the National Farmers’ Union, says in The Times today, it is time to start thinking about what comes next. Britain should keep its promises to farmers, but agricultural subsidies need to become smarter. A better policy would protect the countryside and raise productivity.

There are many goals to be reconciled in agricultural policy. Food needs to be affordable for consumers. Farmers need a reasonable income. With uncertain trade negotiations ahead, Britain needs to produce food at home. Meanwhile, there must be robust incentives to keep the countryside in good shape. On top of all that, ministers will not want to fleece the taxpayer.

Some believe that this final objective should dominate. Subsidies should be scrapped altogether when Britain leaves the EU, this argument runs, since they only prop up failing businesses. That would be a mistake. Many farms, particularly hill farms and small farms in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, would no longer be viable. Large rural areas would be overtaken by brambles, thistles, nettles and scrub. Productive potential would be lost and landscapes sullied. Emissions would rise as Britain sent lorries and aircraft to fetch food from abroad. Prices in the supermarket would shoot up too. That hits the poorest hardest, as more of their income goes on food.

Ministers are left with two main questions to answer: which farmers to subsidise and what strings to attach. Under the present regime, the Common Agricultural Policy subsidises farmers of dairy, meat and crops alike. For the sake of maintaining some degree of domestic food security, that breadth should continue. The CAP’s main condition is on land ownership: the bigger the farm, the bigger the subsidy. Ms Batters reckons that this is unlikely to go on after Brexit. Neither should it. Bigger farms are normally those least in need of the subsidy to survive. Supporting smaller farms also avoids mass consolidation which narrows the gene pool and renders crops less resilient against disease.

The focus should be on providing farms of all sizes with the capital to invest in more productive equipment and training to use it. Opponents of subsidies get one thing right: they can stifle innovation. When New Zealand abolished its subsidy in 1984, productivity growth doubled. Britain’s went up by scarcely a quarter in the same period.

The government can help to reverse this trend. More farms could benefit from “precision agriculture”, which uses sensors and satellites to ensure that fertilisers and pesticides are targeted where they are needed. Engineers say that driverless tractors and harvesting robots are coming within a few years. Investment in technology like this now will be economic in the long term. As ever, more mechanisation does not necessarily mean fewer jobs. It should mean different jobs, and government should help with the retraining.

It is also vital to protect the rural environment. Subsidies can incentivise farmers to maintain the numbers of endangered species in their area and set aside more land for wildlife to flourish in. Policies like these can help to keep the land green and pleasant. With a bit of long-term thinking and ambition, it can be profitable too.
 
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Location
Devon
She has totally sold her members down the river before talks about post Brexit support for farmers has even started!

Totally unacceptable and imo she should be suspended/removed from her role at the NFU to allow someone that is ACTUALLY going to stand up for the members to take her place!

Don't forget she sits on the RT board so god only knows what daft ideas she is putting forward about tightening the RT rules..

I URGE that every farmer who isn't happy with the comments in this interview to contact their county chairperson and make their views clear!

We all know that subs will change post Brexit but its an utter disgrace that a NFU top team member should come out with such comments 3 months before the NFU officially launch their views on UK AG and support post Brexit and undermine talks that no doubt will take place between the NFU/ Gov once Article 50 is triggered.

@Guy Smith : Is Minette Batters views in this interview the same as what the NFU's official policy suggestions will be in Brexit talks once they begin??
 
She has totally sold her members down the river before talks about post Brexit support for farmers has even started!

Totally unacceptable and imo she should be suspended/removed from her role at the NFU to allow someone that is ACTUALLY going to stand up for the members to take her place!

Don't forget she sits on the RT board so god only knows what daft ideas she is putting forward about tightening the RT rules..

I URGE that every farmer who isn't happy with the comments in this interview to contact their county chairperson and make their views clear!

We all know that subs will change post Brexit but its an utter disgrace that a NFU top team member should come out with such comments 3 months before the NFU officially launch their views on UK AG and support post Brexit and undermine talks that no doubt will take place between the NFU/ Gov once Article 50 is triggered.

@Guy Smith : Is Minette Batters views in this interview the same as what the NFU's official policy suggestions will be in Brexit talks once they begin??

First you lambast Minnette Batters for publicly speaking about her views, then you invite Guy Smith to publicly confirm the NFU official policy.
Confused.
 

fudge

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire.
She has totally sold her members down the river before talks about post Brexit support for farmers has even started!

Totally unacceptable and imo she should be suspended/removed from her role at the NFU to allow someone that is ACTUALLY going to stand up for the members to take her place!

Don't forget she sits on the RT board so god only knows what daft ideas she is putting forward about tightening the RT rules..

I URGE that every farmer who isn't happy with the comments in this interview to contact their county chairperson and make their views clear!

We all know that subs will change post Brexit but its an utter disgrace that a NFU top team member should come out with such comments 3 months before the NFU officially launch their views on UK AG and support post Brexit and undermine talks that no doubt will take place between the NFU/ Gov once Article 50 is triggered.

@Guy Smith : Is Minette Batters views in this interview the same as what the NFU's official policy suggestions will be in Brexit talks once they begin??
We have leaving the EU why not accept it.
 

Yale

Member
Livestock Farmer
I think she completely misses the point. What the general public are getting for their money is CHEAP SECURE FOOD PRODUCTION

If they get rid of subsidies then the public will pay more for food,end of.

I'm not working for less than nothing,neither are the rest of the farmers.

Just look at the panic about prices since the exchange rate has moved.
 

DrDunc

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Dunsyre
The subsidy system has to, and will change.

Why pay a large area "farmer" tens, hundreds, and even a few cases, millions of pounds to produce feck all squared from that land?

The public want cheap food. The short term solution would be to import cheaper food from dubious environmental and welfare standard production countries.

WE, THE ACTIVE FARMERS, MUST LOBBY AND CAMPAIGN TO KEEP FOOD BRITISH.




Without subsidies, the vast majority of upland and hill farms could not compete against produce subsidised in other countries, or countries where the environment is raped and the animal treatment is cruel.

STOP ALL THE BICKERING, INFIGHTING AND NAME CALLING. GET TOGETHER, AND GET THE PUBLIC TO SUPPORT OUR INDUSTRY.

CHEAP FOOD FROM ABROAD IS IMMIGRATION THROUGH THE BACK DOOR.
 

DeeGee

Member
Location
North East Wales
The vast majority of people will always go for the cheapest food; to be brutally honest I don't think most are too bothered about who produces it or where it comes from.
I don't honestly think that food prices would rise without subs. If subsidies went I'm sure that there would be some farmers taking advantage of the land vacated by many others leaving the industry, and thus making their own farms bigger and 'better'; using economies of scale to produce things on ever tighter margins.
Not a scenario I would like to see, but IMO that is probably what would happen.
 

fudge

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire.
The vast majority of people will always go for the cheapest food; to be brutally honest I don't think most are too bothered about who produces it or where it comes from.
I don't honestly think that food prices would rise without subs. If subsidies went I'm sure that there would be some farmers taking advantage of the land vacated by many others leaving the industry, and thus making their own farms bigger and 'better'; using economies of scale to produce things on ever tighter margins.
Not a scenario I would like to see, but IMO that is probably what would happen.
In some ways this is a guess, we do not know what will happen. I'm not in the NFU, but if I were I would be arguing for organic subsidies. You might as well play to your stemgths. The UK isn't going to compete on price alone. Protectionism is a non starter for the UK we are just too small therefore we need to trade.
 

roscoe erf

Member
Livestock Farmer
The subsidy system has to, and will change.

Why pay a large area "farmer" tens, hundreds, and even a few cases, millions of pounds to produce feck all squared from that land?

The public want cheap food. The short term solution would be to import cheaper food from dubious environmental and welfare standard production countries.

WE, THE ACTIVE FARMERS, MUST LOBBY AND CAMPAIGN TO KEEP FOOD BRITISH.




Without subsidies, the vast majority of upland and hill farms could not compete against produce subsidised in other countries, or countries where the environment is raped and the animal treatment is cruel.

STOP ALL THE BICKERING, INFIGHTING AND NAME CALLING. GET TOGETHER, AND GET THE PUBLIC TO SUPPORT OUR INDUSTRY.

CHEAP FOOD FROM ABROAD IS IMMIGRATION THROUGH THE BACK DOOR.
great sentiments but farmers working together never happen
 
Location
cumbria

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 77 43.5%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 62 35.0%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 28 15.8%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.7%
  • 75-100%

    Votes: 3 1.7%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 4 2.3%

Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

  • 1,285
  • 1
As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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