CLA Rural Business Conference 2018 – The changing policy framework for landowners
Secretary of State Michael Gove delivered a speech in which he reiterated his aspirations for the Agriculture Bill and the benefits he hopes it will bring.
Strutt & Parker was delighted to once again sponsor the CLA’s Rural Business Conference which this year focused on how rural landowners are investing to shape places and create new opportunities in the rural economy.
The Secretary of State for DEFRA delivered a speech in which he reiterated his aspirations for the Agriculture Bill and the benefits he hopes it will bring.
The key messages shared by Mr Gove were:
- Food production is critically important, but our environment is something on which we all depend – there is a virtuous circle
- There’s an opportunity to enhance the £3bn in support that agriculture currently benefits from, if an argument can be made to the Treasury about its contribution to society in terms of enhancing health and the environment
- Farmers will be encouraged to see the delivery of public goods through the Environmental Land Management Scheme (ELMs) as a fourth crop
- He wants agreements to be long-term (10 years and 20 years for woodlands) and to reward landowners for outcomes, not procedures
- While he supports the precautionary principle, this should not preclude adopting new scientific approaches, which may include gene-editing
- While there are world leaders in farming in the UK, overall the farming sector lags in terms of productivity
- He is keen to change the perception and prejudices about working in land-based industries to broaden the new talent entering the sector
- A national food strategy will be published in 2019 which addresses issues such as how to feed the world with a lighter environmental footprint.
