When the UK left the EU, we left the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) creating a once in-a-generation opportunity to reform the way we farm in England. The CAP, which largely allocated subsidies according to the amount of land farmers’ own, has accelerated the massive loss of nature across our farmed landscape. This is particularly noticeable in farmland bird populations, which have collapsed by more than half since 1970.
The Agriculture Act 2020 gave the Government the chance to replace these out-of-date subsidies with a system that rewards farmers for growing food in a way that is good for nature, rather than harming it. This ambition is vital to save degraded soils and declining pollinators, clean up rivers full of agricultural pollution, allow restored natural habitats to store carbon – and to save farming in the future.
However, in recent months, the long-promised Environmental Land Management (ELM) schemes appear under threat. Despite comments from the Prime Minister that we cannot go back to the old days of the costly and bureaucratic CAP, there have been calls to delay the implementation of ELM and worrying signals of promised reforms to farming stalling.
Last week, the UK Government abandoned its promise to provide a third of its farming budget for Landscape Recovery – the most ambitious and large-scale approach to restoring land and rivers in the new system. This scheme, which would have included projects to restore upland peat, clean-up whole river catchments, and reintroduce lost species, will now receive less than 1% of the initial budget.
More funding will instead be dedicated towards meeting more basic environmental standards under schemes such as the Sustainable Farm Incentive (SFI). However, without significant improvement these schemes risk repeating the mistakes of the past by funding either basic good practice or what is currently required to access EU payments under the old Common Agricultural Policy.
The Government must move further and faster to a greener farming system. Schemes to support farmers to reduce pesticide use through Integrated Pest Management, restore hedgerows, and improve farmland biodiversity should be made available to farmers from next year.
Calls to delay these new schemes would be bad value for money, providing billions of taxpayer funding to the wealthiest farms in England, hold back the recovery of nature, and hinder the UK’s progress to Net Zero.
Farming with nature can enhance food production and improve farm profitability, whilst restoring nature and reducing carbon emissions. The recent UK Food Security Report highlighted that nature loss and climate change are the two biggest threats to our domestic production – and so we cannot afford to repeat the CAP’s mistakes.