This week two months have passed since the UK voted to leave the EU. Among those who voted to leave were many farmers who were so disillusioned that they felt it will be no worse outside than inside. Others were concerned that historically UK governments were the greatest opponents of the CAP and were therefore unlikely to care much for farming when left with the option in a post-EU situation.

Not much has happened since the vote, which is probably more to do with change of government leadership, summer holidays and the logistics of putting in place a negotiation team and strategy. The UK wasn’t prepared for this, so don’t expect an immediate triggering of Article 50. It could be well into next year or beyond when the process of leaving begins. However, there is no time for delay from farmers in shaping future agriculture policy post Brexit. Environmental and welfare lobby groups have already been making their case to have rural support targeted specifically if not exclusively in these areas.

Challenge

Part of the challenge for UK farming unions is that until now they had a limited role in shaping EU policy. Now it is coming back to national government policy, they need to take their lobbying to a new level. The notion that farming and agriculture is irrelevant in the UK economy prevails widely, but it can be challenged. The challenge won’t come through measurement of contribution to the economy in the traditional sense, as it is barely recorded on the scale at just 0.7%.

The case has to be approached from a different set of values than monetary contribution to GDP. Britain is an island of around 60m people that is nowhere near self-sufficient in food production. As it will no longer be part of a bigger family with a common agricultural policy, it has to think strategically about its “security” beyond the traditional meaning of the word. The annual defence budget for the current year is £35bn (€41bn) and forecast to rise to £40bn (€47bn) by 2020. The 2020 figure will be 16 times the cost of pillar one support received by UK farmers from the current CAP.

Farming and food production is as much part of the UK strategic national interest as is maintaining a nuclear deterrent through trident and, incidentally, it is a fraction of the cost

Investment in defence is a precaution for that dreaded day when the country comes under military attack. However, that possibility would seem to be remote. And the need for major expenditure on national defence can also be challenged, as the UK is very much part of Nato.

Such a challenge would likely be met by arguments that defence spending is essential in the strategic national interest. Farmer representatives must get the corresponding point across to Government and indeed the wider public. Farming and food production is as much part of the UK strategic national interest as is maintaining a nuclear deterrent through trident and, incidentally, it is a fraction of the cost.

Basic needs

Air, water, food and shelter are the most basic needs for human survival. While the UK as a developed western economy may not appear to be concerned right now, there are still many people in the population who remember food rationing as part of everyday life.

Post-war UK government policy encouraged maximum agricultural production and, in joining the EU, the position of farming was further secured. Now, with a blank sheet of paper on which to shape UK government agricultural policy, it is an opportunity for farmers and industry to develop an affordable way to provide sustainable affordable food for a 60m population that secures the buy-in of government and the wider public alike.

The second part of this article will explore in detail options for delivering this outcome. It will appear in the print edition of the Irish Farmers Journal on Thursday 1 September.