President Minette Batters of the National Farmers Union has expressed significant concerns over the post-Brexit farming subsidy scheme in England. She claims that it has not improved upon the previous EU system and continues to disproportionately benefit large landowners.
Ms Batters, who will resign from her role at the NFU in February, has highlighted that since the UK's decision to leave the EU in 2016, the agricultural policy has been managed by seven different environment secretaries, leading to a lack of consistency and effectiveness.
The EU's Common Agricultural Policy was often criticised for favoring large landowners, and Brexit was seen as a chance to reform the payment system. However, the new Environmental Land Management schemes (ELMs) in England have been slow to roll out and have drawn criticism for prioritising environmental concerns over food production.
Batters: “The focus at the moment is on growing a crop for the environment and not producing food...I think that’s going to be really hard with the cost of living crisis.” She added that with increasing concerns over food security, the government's failure to create a more equitable system is apparent. “Large landowners effectively living off the state is not going to wash going forward.”
The new scheme, while different from the EU system in its approach of awarding funding for environmental actions, still bases payments on land area. This means that farmers with more land can secure more funds.
Source: fpcfreshtalkdaily.co.uk