F E AT U R E By Theo Plowman
The Agriculture Act 2020 This edition of Landscape coincides with a monumental shift in the way farmers are supported, and hopefully a shift in the way land is managed. The Agriculture Act has completed its long and often arduous journey through Parliament. The bill was heavily scrutinised by environmental NGOs, farming unions, Peers and MPs, only to remain almost identical to the original draft. There is a fundamental and positive principle that holds true: public money should pay farmers to deliver public goods. The Common Agriculture Policy (CAP) was first legislated in the 1960s. By 1973, it was well established, and aspiring members of the European Economic Community (the EU’s predecessor) had to accept it. As such, the UK joined the CAP that year. The policy proved controversial, infamous for its expense, inefficiency, wine lakes and butter mountains. This is the lasting public image of the policy, but the present form of CAP is much different. Funding is no longer linked to production, but is a direct form of payments tied to compliance to a set of standards on food safety, animal rights and environmental concerns. The key thrust of reforms in the early 2000’s was to sever the link between payments and production, so that farmers produce for market demand and not to gain EU subsidies. The current model – the Basic
Payment Scheme (BPS) – was launched in 2015, and now the butter mountains are no more. Yet the system remains the target of considerable criticism, much of which we highlighted in our 2018 Food and Farming Paper. The first issue is its enormous cost. In 2016, farmers represented 3% of Europe’s population, and around 1.6% of its GDP, but the CAP budget totals to an eye-watering 40% of the EU budget, or £49bn1 per year of EU taxpayers’ money. Nearly £4bn of UK tax money goes towards the CAP, an amount British politicians have been trying to claw back for decades. Many may see these subsidies as a lifeline to quaint, family-run farms, but that image is somewhat inaccurate. Whilst the majority of farms remain small and family-run, the majority of the payments go to megafarms and mammoth multinational corporations.
In the UK, the vast majority goes to a small group of large and wealthy landowners. In 20162, the top 100 largest landowners received a total of £87.9m, which is more than was paid to the bottom 55,119 recipients combined. Furthermore, owning land earns money, and unsurprisingly this has driven up agricultural land prices to the point where it is almost impossible for young farmers to gain a foothold. In environmental terms, although the current system is much improved from the original payment schemes, it is clear that agriculture has and continues to have significant impacts on the environment. CAP policies have gradually incorporated a greater consideration of environmental impacts across water, air, soil, and biodiversity – but to varying degrees of effectiveness.
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