Farmers are angry – and fearful for their future. With large protests taking place outside Government buildings around the UK, Countryfile presenter Charlotte Smith explains why the industry is at a crossroads
Ioan Humphries would rather be at home in Powys, tending to his sheep and cattle. Instead, he is standing in the rain on the steps of the Welsh Parliament, speaking to a crowd of 3,000 farmers.
Visibly scared, he tells them: “I’ve got a two-year-old son sitting at home who loves every minute of being on the farm, and I am fighting for his future on that farm.”
A few weeks later, in West Sussex, Ben Strickland leaves his farm to join a tractor ‘go slow’ rally outside Westminster Parliament. “I’m a third-generation farmer,” Strickland tells the BBC. “I’m here for my future. There’s a chance my future might not involve farming, whether I like it or not. Imports, price of wheat and costs – there are multiple nails being put into this coffin built around us.”
Costs – from fertiliser to interest rates – are high, and prices, say farmers, aren’t keeping track...for many farming families it feels like crunch time.
These two rallies follow weeks of mass meetings and tractor convoys. It is a time of change for British farmers – change in the way we pay them, change in what we expect from them, change in the climate.
Costs – from fertiliser to interest rates – are high, and prices, say farmers, aren’t keeping track. Add uncertainty and a wet winter, and for many farming families it feels like crunch time.
“We’re sick of being the doormat and taking the blame for everything… it’s gone too far,” Ioan tells me. “Then you stand up and try to do something about it.” That something is protest.
The ‘B’ Word
At this point we need to talk about Brexit. Leaving the EU meant leaving the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). For decades, it set the rules for British farmers and paid them a subsidy, mainly based on the amount of land they had. It is a complicated thing and even ardent Remainers saw a chance to design a better system.
But leaving the EU and the CAP is a massive change. On top of that, farming finds itself at the centre of some of the debate about the environment. Governments are keen to find ways to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change. At the same time, nature is declining rapidly.
The UK’s response to these challenges is complex. Agricultural policy is devolved to the four nations of the UK, and each is coming up with different plans. Which brings us back to a wet morning in Cardiff.
I haven’t worked this land for people to come here and plant trees. We’ve worked our hands to the bone to produce food. It’s our land.
The Welsh Government’s proposed solution is the Sustainable Farming Scheme (SFS). Under the SFS, farmers will continue to be paid public money if they devote more than 10% of their land for trees, and a further 10% for wildlife habitats. There can be some overlap, and existing trees would count, as would existing ponds; though it’s not yet clear how much money is on offer.
But some farmers object to converting land from food production. As hill farmer Gareth Wyn Jones told the crowd: “I haven’t worked this land for people to come here and plant trees. We’ve worked our hands to the bone to produce food. It’s our land.”
There are cheers, and Mali Davies, who farms in Ceredigion, agrees: “I just think they’re trying to destroy our future in farming. They’re paying us to not farm… we should be focusing on food production.”
Food security concerns
This tension between protecting the environment and producing food lies at the heart of some farmers’ objections to the new plans for farming across the UK. The emphasis is on ‘public money for public goods’: paying farmers for services they give us that the market doesn’t reward, such as good soil, carbon-capturing trees and healthy hedges.
Craig Bennet, CEO of the Wildlife Trusts, says, “We have had 50 years of taxpayers funding food production across Europe. Where that’s got us is a situation where there are real concerns about the production of food, huge concerns about loss of nature across Europe, declining nature across the UK – and a situation where farmers are not happy, either. If ever there was a moment in our history to change our subsidies, support the regeneration of nature and regenerative ag, now is it.”
British farming is becoming totally unsustainable. If we don’t try and do something there’s going to be no farmers left.
But farmers argue that will mean less food is grown, threatening the UK’s food security. As Craig and other environmentalists acknowledge, this comes at a tough time for farming. Costs are up, farms have been hit by drought, then flooding. One rural mental health charity says it had 72% more people opt for counselling this February than last.
The growing pressure felt by farmers is mentioned by more than one person when I join a protest outside a supermarket in Dover in Kent on a cold Saturday in February. Jeff Gibson, who farms nearby, organised the protest because, he tells me, “British farming is becoming totally unsustainable. If we don’t try and do something there’s going to be no farmers left.” He points to post-Brexit trade deals with Australia and New Zealand, which he says will undercut British farmers.
Other farmers who have parked their tractors in the supermarket car park explain to shoppers how little money they are making, as passing traffic hoots support. “Cheap imports are ruining our industry,” says Jeff.
Not all farmers back such protests. As the president of the National Farmers Union Tom Bradshaw explains: “Ongoing support of the British public is of paramount importance, and we must not take this support or its influence for granted.”
Others worry that politicians and other groups with agendas way beyond farming are getting involved, from anti-Brexit campaigners to those protesting net-zero policies and even the Prime Minister, who joined a protest in Wales against its Labour Government.
But Jeff says protests work, pointing to what’s been happening across Europe in recent months. That, he says, has “shown us what can be accomplished”.
No going back
No one I speak to at the protests sees going back to the CAP as a panacea. Subsidy payments remain across Europe, but the CAP, too, is changing to incorporate more green measures – or at least it was.
The past few months in Europe have seen motorways blocked, manure sprayed on buildings and tyres burned outside EU offices in Brussels as farmers protest about that and other issues.
Both the EU and national governments have made concessions. So, too, have the English and Welsh governments. In England, farmers will now only be able to put 25% of their land into schemes that take it away from producing food. In Wales, they’re looking again at the SFS – and a new rural affairs minister has been appointed. But that might not spell the end to protests.
Ioan Humphries sums up the mood of many farmers I’ve met recently: “I told the politicians: it would be nice to see if you back your words... something’s got to happen, otherwise who knows what the future holds?”
