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You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jan/04/the-guardian-view-on-farming-after-brexit-not-quite-a-revolution
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| Version 2 | Version 3 |
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| The Guardian view on farming after Brexit: not quite a revolution | The Guardian view on farming after Brexit: not quite a revolution |
| (5 days later) | |
| Michael Gove’s plans for farming after Brexit, which he set out at the Oxford Farming Conference on Thursday morning, were greeted with all the excitement that might be expected of groundbreaking innovation. But there was little in his speech that was not in the first he made as environment secretary last July, or his party conference speech in October – or in, say, the Country Land and Business Association’s proposals for the future of farming, also published last July. It is welcome that he plans to end the “fundamentally flawed” EU basic payments scheme, through which some landowners, notoriously the Queen, get millions a year in CAP subsidies. It is a good idea to support schemes according to the public good they deliver, although Mr Gove did not say what public good means. He may have had one eye on the scheme that Ireland has developed with the EU to farm the environmentally fragile area known as The Burren, which is considered a model of farming for conservation and public access. | Michael Gove’s plans for farming after Brexit, which he set out at the Oxford Farming Conference on Thursday morning, were greeted with all the excitement that might be expected of groundbreaking innovation. But there was little in his speech that was not in the first he made as environment secretary last July, or his party conference speech in October – or in, say, the Country Land and Business Association’s proposals for the future of farming, also published last July. It is welcome that he plans to end the “fundamentally flawed” EU basic payments scheme, through which some landowners, notoriously the Queen, get millions a year in CAP subsidies. It is a good idea to support schemes according to the public good they deliver, although Mr Gove did not say what public good means. He may have had one eye on the scheme that Ireland has developed with the EU to farm the environmentally fragile area known as The Burren, which is considered a model of farming for conservation and public access. |
| The minister spoke lyrically about restoring woodland and returning other agriculture land to wetlands and reviving meadowland, although he didn’t acknowledge that that relies on a style of management that would reduce productivity. He might mean producing nutritious, wholesome food in a sustainable way, although Mr Gove did not say that was what he meant when he announced a “national food policy”. Nor did he say if his plans would lead to food becoming more costly. | The minister spoke lyrically about restoring woodland and returning other agriculture land to wetlands and reviving meadowland, although he didn’t acknowledge that that relies on a style of management that would reduce productivity. He might mean producing nutritious, wholesome food in a sustainable way, although Mr Gove did not say that was what he meant when he announced a “national food policy”. Nor did he say if his plans would lead to food becoming more costly. |
| There are other tensions. Farming is already in decline, and farm incomes are falling. Ending basic payments to the thousands of small farmers who shape the rural landscape in parts of England and Scotland, and much of Wales and Northern Ireland, will be a hard blow. The average farm size in the UK is about 160 acres. Mr Gove suggested the men and women who farm these plots are old and set in their ways; their future is bleak – although while the government relies on the DUP for votes, radical change must remain unlikely. | There are other tensions. Farming is already in decline, and farm incomes are falling. Ending basic payments to the thousands of small farmers who shape the rural landscape in parts of England and Scotland, and much of Wales and Northern Ireland, will be a hard blow. The average farm size in the UK is about 160 acres. Mr Gove suggested the men and women who farm these plots are old and set in their ways; their future is bleak – although while the government relies on the DUP for votes, radical change must remain unlikely. |
| But then it was implied in much of the speech that nothing would happen in a hurry, certainly not the changes to subsidy payments. Perhaps the man who steamrollered his way through the Department for Education and wanted to upend prisons policy at the Ministry of Justice has realised the advantage of making haste slowly. Or perhaps he has been persuaded to see that not all farmers are the enemy. | But then it was implied in much of the speech that nothing would happen in a hurry, certainly not the changes to subsidy payments. Perhaps the man who steamrollered his way through the Department for Education and wanted to upend prisons policy at the Ministry of Justice has realised the advantage of making haste slowly. Or perhaps he has been persuaded to see that not all farmers are the enemy. |
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| Rural affairs | Rural affairs |
| Michael Gove | Michael Gove |
| Brexit | Brexit |
| Foreign policy | Foreign policy |
| editorials | editorials |
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