Farming goes into a silo – again
Last week’s introduction by Defra Secretary George Eustice to the agricultural transition plan for England suggests for the first time in 50 years we have the opportunity to think things through from first principles and create a coherent policy for agriculture.
Lacking in the transition plan, though, is any sense that these principles have been coherently thought through.
The plan and its focus on ELM places farming in a silo – again. As with European policy reform that has gone before, it seeks to retain the overall budget and simply repurpose it to new uses. Mr Eustice rightly highlighted the CAP currently works differently in each of the home nations, but this difference is only in the implementation choices around a defined set of options.
Farming does not exist in a silo – it meets the needs of all of those who rely on food, the environment, fibre and fuel in their everyday lives. The description of the purpose of farming in the UK is a welcome start in defining how policy can be shaped to meet those outcomes, but ELM alone won’t touch it.
We need a coherent approach to reconciling these issues before farms can be expected to generate profit and for UK agricultural policy to be an exemplar that other countries wish to follow.
Rhydian Scurlock-Jones is head of rural at Savills in Telford
