Source · Select Committees · Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee
Recommendation 1
1
Paragraph: 14
The scale of environmental, social and economic change facing English farming cannot be understated.
Conclusion
The scale of environmental, social and economic change facing English farming cannot be understated. This includes the global challenge of climate change and the need to operate in new trading conditions, but it also includes the Government’s decision to fundamentally change the basis of agricultural policy. The agricultural transition must work for farmers and make a significant contribution to achieving the Government’s environmental objectives.
Paragraph Reference:
14
Government Response
Acknowledged
HM Government
Acknowledged
The Government welcomes the Environment Food and Rural Affairs (EFRA) Committee’s report on the environmental land management schemes and the agricultural transition. The Government’s Agricultural Transition Plan sets out our plans for a seven-year transition period. During this time we will replace the Common Agricultural Policy and its arbitrary area-based subsidy payments with a new, tailored agricultural policy for England. By 2028, we want to see a renewed agricultural sector, producing healthy food for consumption at home and abroad. One in which farms can be profitable and economically sustainable without subsidy, and with farming and the countryside contributing significantly to environmental goals including addressing climate change. We therefore strongly agree with the committee that the agricultural transition must ‘work for farmers and make a significant contribution to achieving the Government’s environmental objectives’.