UK food standards: why No 10’s lack of commitment is making farmers furious
Coronavirus can seem all consuming, however as we approach the groundrush of Brexit I fear stories like this will begin coming to our attention with increasing regularity. It tells us:
Farmers facing one of their toughest years in recent memory have received little comfort this week from a usually reliable ally: the Conservative party.
Their pleas to the government to enshrine in law a commitment to the UK’s high standards of food safety and animal welfare were ignored. In a long and impassioned debate in the House of Commons on Monday, amendments to the agriculture bill that had almost universal backing from farming leaders were defeated, steamrollered under the government’s 80-strong majority.
The stakes could scarcely be higher: British farmers are worried that post-Brexit trade bills with the US and other countries will allow the import of food and agricultural products that are currently banned under EU regulations. Produced to a lower standard than the UK mandates, these foods would undercut British produce – yet if the UK were to lower its own standards, the export route for British food to its biggest market, Europe, would be blocked.
They have been arguing, alongside food and environmental campaigners, for legal status to be given to UK standards, which would prevent any future deals that undercut them.