There is no comparison to the UK’s food system in 2020 and the 1800s Corn Laws, and free traders are doing us all a disservice by denying this fact, says arable farmer and NFU Sugar Board member Tom Clarke.
Picture the scene. It is the end of 2021 and there has been a no-deal Brexit, while Basic Payments have also started to reduce in line with Government plans to move towards a more environmentally-based farming support structure.
The Scottish Government has laid out its new regulations for farming ahead of the end of the EU Transition period on December 31.
A Financial Times Global Food Systems Summit heard how changes to agricultural policy will disrupt the status quo and an MP admitted she was wrong to call for a meat tax to curb red meat consumption. Abi Kay reports.
Ministers have finally given Parliament more power to scrutinise trade deals, but the Parliament which will be scrutinising is the same Tory-majority one which has voted time and again not to protect our standards. I am not popping the champagne cork just yet, says Liberal Democrat MP Tim Farron.
If Scottish farmers are to address the climate emergency, they need guarantees that they will not be undercut by cheap, environmentally damaging imports from abroad, says John Finnie, Green MSP for the Highlands and Islands.
The UK is not as ready as it should be for the end of the Brexit transition, and it’s hard to see how the current lean, just-in-time meat and dairy supply chains will survive, says Shane Brennan, chief executive of the Cold Chain Federation.
If readers of Farmers Guardian were to look at their favourite landscapes they would no doubt see vistas shaped by agriculture, with farmers at their heart.
Increased production and commercial innovation prevented flour shortages during the first lockdown – so there’s no need to panic this time, says National Association of British and Irish Millers (nabim) director Alex Waugh.
Trade Secretary Liz Truss has attempted to reassure Welsh sheep farmers about the prospect of a UK-New Zealand trade deal.