Michael Gove promises rewards for ‘environmentally friendly’ farmers after Brexit

Secretary of Environment Michael Gove says he will scrap the EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and replace it with subsidies for farmers who are “environmentally friendly”.

 

Gove says the CAP is ‘“fundamentally flawed by design” as it is currently set up in such a way that land owners (including the queen) receive subsidies for any agricultural activity that takes place on their land despite also charging the farmers rent. He says “Paying landowners for the amount of agricultural land they have is unjust, inefficient and drives perverse outcomes. It gives the most from the public purse to those who have the most private wealth.”

 

West country Farmer Bertie Newman says “at the moment some of the farmers don’t even see the subsidies as they all go to the land owners”.

 

This move in an attempt to ease the plight of British farmers comes after the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Agroecology warned Gove that future trade deals may ‘undermine’ British farmers as imported food with lower environmental and welfare standards could wipe out business.

 

Although the new post Brexit farming policy has not yet been laid out It is expected that farmers will be allowed a period of five years to prepare for these changes before they come into place.