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British agriculture on the edge of the abyss |
April 8, 2013 |
Great Britain has faced harrowing climate conditions in 2012, with the month of March recording the worst weather since 1962. As a result, agriculture suffered extensively. Grain farmers only planted 15 percent of spring crops, cattle breeders watched helplessly while their livestock freeze to death, in some areas breeders are claiming to have lost 20 percent of their herd, and the threat of a health crisis and soaring global prices are capping this distressing picture. British agriculture is thus operating on borrowed time and, according to some experts, might not see a rapid improvement.
Can the solution be found in Brussels? When one notes Owen Paterson’s1 strong opposition to an increased CAP budget, the salvation cannot obviously come from the European Union. For that matter, trade and trade regulation are no longer an issue in British minds––the decoupling of direct support and market non-intervention now seem to be an intangible and widely accepted reality.
Yet, farmers’ calls for help are abundant and support is genuine. The Prince’s Countryside Fund (PCF), an emergency fund granted to farmers in case of crisis, was released, and, in early April, the National Farmers Union urged British citizens to buy “Made in Britain”.
Releasing emergency funds and calling upon citizen activism? A must… Promoting the establishment of young farmers as outlined in the DEFRA’s2 Future for Farming project? An imperative… But these programs are not enough given the urgency and seriousness of the situation.
In a recent article published in The Guardian, Colin Tudge, a British writer and scientist, calls for a growing awareness by the Government and British citizens of the dangers of excessive liberalism in times of threats to the survival of the country’s agriculture––letting markets decide on the fate of British farmers would only drive them closer to the abyss. In addition, the recent food and financial crises have shown the inability of markets to self-regulate.
This crisis presents the opportunity to provide agriculture, especially European agriculture, with genuine stabilizing tools, while unregulated free trade and the excesses of deregulation––inherited across the Channel from the Thatcher Era––would only worsen an environment already damaged by significant climate hazards.
1 Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
2 Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. |
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