Caroline Stocks

Farmageddon? Caroline Stocks

In this the fifth Bite-Sized Brexit Book, a wide range of authors, from across the United Kingdom, assess the impact of Brexit on UK farming - and come to different, sometimes contradictory, conclusions, all of which are challenging, thought-provoking and well-argued. As the Introduction says: "It is hard to imagine a farm policy more idiotic than the current Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). Since 2005, the EU has paid out 64bn a year of taxpayers' money to farmers for doing nothing more than occupy their land. To receive this money from the CAP's 'Basic Payment Scheme', farmland 'occupiers' have not been required to reduce greenhouse gas emissions or other forms of farm pollution, reverse the decline of flora and fauna on their land, or even produce food."So why is there such intense anxiety in the UK, reflected in the apocalyptic title of this book, about what the repatriation of UK farm policy post-Brexit might lead to? Could a UK-devised policy possibly be any worse than the current CAP?"The author of the introduction, Bio-Waste Spreader (Stephen Carr) of "Private Eye", brings into play the conflicting arguments, resolutions and ideas that are explored in this really vital contribution to the whole Brexit debate.