Beyond 2020 - New farm policy

This briefing has been developed in consultation with working party members drawn from the Sustain membership and forms part of a wider Sustain programme on Brexit to deliver high standards for food, farming and fishing (including supporting a Policy Commission and promoting new legal frameworks). It summarises the principles and policies needed to deliver better farming in the UK (not including land based aquaculture). These are proposed as a contribution to the debate on policy after 2020 when the current European schemes and regulatory frameworks are due to end.

This briefing refers mainly to agriculture policy in England though many of the principles proposed are common across the UK. In terms of the devolved nations, there should be no top-down UK policy. Agriculture should continue to be fully devolved when we leave the EU.  The nations could and should agree a consensual framework which maintains UK-wide structures where needed.