Food campaigners, unions and trade associations predict at best uncertainty and at worst bleak prospects for British food and farming in the aftermath of the UK decision to leave the EU.
Not all Sustain members have publically taken a position on Brexit, but among those that have disappointment was a keynote of their responses to the vote on 23 June.
The Soil Association said, 'Our objectives are to preserve, conserve and protect the environment and our view is that these objectives were far more likely to be achieved as part of the EU.’
Friends of the Earth posted a 'red alert for nature' after the result was announced, saying the decision 'puts many of our environmental protections at risk', specifically on habitats, beaches, air, and bee-harming pesticides.
The food unions among Sustain's members were concerned that hard-won workers' protections may be lost when the UK ceases to be bound by EU regulation. The GMB called for urgent action to protect jobs and workplace rights. Unison highlighted the acrimonious nature of the campaign, which it said had 'done a huge disservice to our democracy and values'. Len McCluskey, leader of Unite, said lessons had to be learned from the deep disaffection felt by working people across Britain: 'Too many feel that they have been abandoned by a political class that is not interested in their concerns.' Touching on the issue of migrant labour, on which some sectors of the food industry now depend, he said that political responses must include 'looking at how best to deal with the difficult issue of the free movement of labour and its impact on working people.'
The Food Ethics Council have put out a statement on Brexit, and also a guest blog from James Northen (ex IGD) on the topic.
The Alliance to Save our Antibiotics said that, 'in the light of a Brexit vote, the UK Government can no longer make excuses not to take unilateral action on farm antibiotics. It is imperative that Defra does not renege on its support for the current EU proposals to ban the routine prophylactic use of antibiotics in groups of healthy animals.'
Beyond Sustain's membership, the farming unions saw the issue slightly differently. Before the vote, polls had found farmers to be divided over the likely impacts of Brexit, with a Farmers’ Weekly poll in May showing 67% of respondents in favour of Britain leaving the EU. After the vote, the NFU said that the vote would 'inevitably lead to a period of uncertainty' for Britain’s farmers. The priorities for Government, the NFU said, were to secure continued access to EU and global markets on favourable terms, to maintain a supply of seasonal labour, and to simplify regulation.
The Tenant Farmers Association said ‘We now need high levels of both wisdom and diplomacy' to negotiate a new framework for policy. Unfortunately, it added, 'both of these attributes have been less than obvious in the referendum debate'.
Finally, the food industry trade associations predicted uncertain trading conditions in the short term, and staked out their members' interests in the policy negotiations which must lie ahead. The Food and Drink Federation, whose members (mostly manufacturers) had voted 70% in favour of remaining in the EU in a recent poll, said the result was inevitably disappointing. It predicted 'a very challenging period ahead’. The British Retail Consortium, representing the big retailers, said the priority for Government must be the preservation of Single Market.
Read Sustain's statement on the result of the referendum here.
Published Friday 24 June 2016
Sustain: Sustain The alliance for better food and farming advocates food and agriculture policies and practices that enhance the health and welfare of people and animals, improve the working and living environment, enrich society and culture and promote equity.
