Summary
Brexit gives us the opportunity to think about food and farming from scratch. We need food and farming that produces nutritious food and encourages healthy diets. That enables us to
meet the Paris climate targets and restores water, soils and biodiversity so that they are passed in good shape to future generations. Decent livelihoods for farmers and respect for
animals as sentient beings, as individuals must be core elements of our policy.
There are two important starting points. Firstly, we need to move away from the current practice of formulating policy in silos with different Government departments, or sections of
departments, being responsible for agriculture, the environment, animal welfare, dietary health, climate change and agri-tech. As a result policies in this arena do not cohere and are
sometimes contradictory. For example, Defra tends to press for further intensification even though this has a detrimental impact on soil quality and animal welfare. Public Health
England advises people to eat less red and processed meat while Defra promotes increased meat production.
Secondly, we need to move away from industrial livestock production as this is a key driver of, or an important contributor to:
- overconsumption of meat and dairy which leads to health problems and will make it
impossible to meet the Paris climate targets - overuse of antibiotics in farming
- pollution and overuse of water, soil degradation, biodiversity loss and air pollution
- food insecurity
- poor animal welfare
Compassion in World Farming wishes to present the following integrated plan for post Brexit food and farming in England.