British farmers fret about losing their protection and their subsidies
I’m not sure anyone has fully scenario planned life outside of the common certainties of the common agricultural policy yet. This article speaks to some of the uncertainty around the issue and its stress causing propensity for those involved in farming it tells us:
It is a truism that farmers like Conservative governments. The party has deep roots in the shires and has traditionally supported country pursuits. Yet the present Tory government worries farmers. Their biggest concern is about whether and how it will replace their £3bn ($3.9bn) of annual subsidies under the European Union’s common agricultural policy, which make up nearly two-thirds of total farming income. They are right to fret. Some Tories believe that escaping the ludicrously lavish and protectionist cap is among the biggest benefits of leaving the eu.
Drenched by recent floods, farmers will have drawn little comfort from this week’s conference of the National Farmers Union (nfu). George Eustice, newly promoted to the job of secretary of state at the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, spoke enticingly of a prosperous future, but also of the biggest change in agricultural policy in half a century.