EU exit would be disaster for UK farmers, says Scottish minister
Without the RSN and RCCs who would put the community part of the fight to protect farming communities? This article, profiling debate at this year’s Oxford Farming Conference tells us:
Leaving the European Union would be a disaster for the UK’s farmers, Scotland’s farming minister has said.
Richard Lochhead accused the government of “gambling with the livelihoods of tens of thousands of farmers and food businesses”, and called the EU’s common agricultural policy a “protective shield” for farmers.
He told delegates at the Oxford farming conference: “The prime minister’s comments about the 2017 in/out referendum on Europe again raises the very real possibility of a UK exit from the EU, presenting a gigantic risk to the future of Scottish and UK farming and food production.”
He said that an exit would “leave producers at the mercy of the market – a market where our direct competitors continue to receive direct support. Our ability to produce food and our national interest would be jeopardised.
“It has set off alarm bells that [the government] is unable to explain how the loss of EU funding could be replaced,” Lochhead said.
The environment secretary, Elizabeth Truss, refused to say what an exit would mean for British farmers, saying only that the government wanted to stay in an EU single market.