INTRODUCTION

F.M.C. OUTLINE POLICY PROPOSALS FOR A UK AGRICULTURAL REFORM BILL  

Introduction  

Lack of self-sufficient Food security and profitability are the two primary problems facing agriculture at this time although there are also a number of important secondary issues such as improvements required in food labelling, strengthening of farm business tenancies and better supply chain regulations which likewise need to be addressed. Food security and profitability concerns are of course nothing new within farming but they have recently turned into a crisis thanks to the rapid growth of input cost inflation and a policy shift towards environmentalism.

Green globalism is now the order of the day with the common sense of agricultural sector stability and national food security having been abandoned by our policy makers. So severe are the detrimental consequences of potential food shortages and of the wealth transfer in farming from private hands to state/corporate ownership under this new paradigm that we feel justified in declaring an agricultural emergency in the UK and call for immediate redress.

It is our belief that we need to pivot from the current high risk globalist approach back to one of national best interest delivered through a comprehensive food security review, flexible protectionism, improved funding and a return to a land area-based subsidy scheme focused on food production. This set of measures is based on the acknowledgment of a unique set of circumstances which relate to the British Isles and in the belief that far reaching and robust reforms are required to offer forward opportunity for farming, permanent protection of food security and the best deal for British consumers.

We also recognise the vital importance of maintaining our traditional model of agricultural which places our food production in the hands of privately owned farming families rather than in the hands of corporations or the government. This ancient arrangement is often overlooked with regard to the vital separation of powers that it provides within our constitution of state and for its foundational support of innovation, competition within free market economies and for democracy itself.

The case for protectionism

How can it be fair to ask our farmers in a country with a small land mass, high population density, high energy costs and a challenging temperate oceanic climate at 55 degrees latitude to compete on a level playing field with global agricultural commodity prices set by larger countries operating on vastly bigger economies of scale? Often such countries have lower population densities, lower input production costs and more favourable climates. Furthermore the iron laws of economics dictate that economy of scale as a force multiplier beats transportation costs every time, even when produce is shipped from half way round the world.

So, the answer of course is it isn’t fair at all and without protectionism it guarantees low profit margins and a slow but steady decline in the number of smaller privately owned family farms being handed down from generation to generation here in the UK.

In the past the case could have been made that our advanced industrialisation and agricultural techniques gave us such a productive advantage over other developing nations that protectionism was deemed unnecessary for our domestic costs of production. That however is most certainly not the case today as the wide scale adoption of modern machinery, technology and techniques are commonplace in all of the biggest agricultural economies in the world from Brazil, India, China, Russia, North America and Australia.

First mover advantage in capacity production and the buffer it provided against price competition has long gone, we are now one of the smaller agricultural producers in the world and our unique selling points are now in high welfare produce quality and in research and development of agricultural technology, yield efficiency and life sciences.

So, the case is clear, protectionism is necessary and justified, a back to basics approach is needed and comprehensive reforms to our current agricultural policies are required.

We now outline a series of policy proposals that when refined and finalised could constitute part of an Agricultural Reform Bill aimed at solving the problems presented by current politics to both farming profitability and national food security.