Miscellaneous
After almost five decades as a member of the powerful European Union (EU) trading bloc, Britain has struck out on its lonesome. At 23:00 Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) last Friday, January 31 2020, Prime Minister Boris Johnson delivered Brexit to the third-largest economy in Europe.It is almost four years since 17.4 million British voters opted for Brexit in the EU Referendum, giving the ‘Leave’ side a decisive, but divisive, 52 per cent of the vote. Four painful and profoundly uncertain years have ensued, stifling the economy and unsettling investors.The United Kingdom (UK) has now entered an 11-month transition period during which Johnson must finalise new trade deals with the country’s most important economic partners. During this phase, which ends on December 31 2020, the UK will continue to adhere to all of the EU's rules and its trading relationship will remain the same.This transition period, which some prefer to call the implementation period, comes at a critical time for the British economy, which grew in 2019 at its slowest annual rate in almost a decade. Failure to strike a deal with Brussels would mean significant new trade barriers. This would be a disaster for economic growth and could push Britain into recession.Agriculture's importance to the UK economy is emphasised by the fact that it has 149,000 farm businesses. That’s more than the number of businesses involved in the motor trade, in education, in finance and in insurance. The farming sector contributes more than £120 billion (AU$237 billion) to the economy and employs over 4 million people.However, food self-sufficiency has been declining steadily for more than 35 years since it peaked at 78 per cent in 1984. That figure was down to 61 per cent in 2018, and the downward trend is forecast to continue.In mid-January, the UK government tabled radical changes to £3 billion (AU$5.9 billion) a year in agricultural spending that will focus the money on benefits to ecosystems, the climate and the public. The UK’s food security is to be regularly assessed by parliament to ensure minimal disruption to supplies while new trade deals are sought.The UK’s new Agriculture Bill has been called “one of the most significant pieces of legislation for farmers in England for over 70 years”. It has the potential to affect the livelihoods of more than 460,000 people and determine the future of the 70 per cent of the UK land area (17.4 million hectares) currently under agricultural management.At the bill’s core is a swing away from direct payments to farmers based upon the area of agricultural land they manage. This was a feature of the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) that was widely criticised as it pushed up land values, creating an entry barrier for younger farmers, and benefited large landowners disproportionately.Instead, landowners will in future be paid to produce “public goods”. These are things that can benefit everyone but bring no financial reward to those who produce them, like clean air and water. Over the next seven years, farmers will move from the CAP regulations to a new system of environmental land management contracts. These will detail the terms a