Posted: Jan 19, 2020 12:14 am
Macdoc wrote:I'm a bit skeptical of Brexit but stuff like this I think is excellent ...
U.K. farm subsidies will require efforts to support public goods, such as recreation. PETER MULLIGAN/GETTY IMAGES
United Kingdom to embark on ‘agricultural revolution’ in break from EU farm subsidies
By Erik StokstadJan. 17, 2020 , 5:10 PM
After the United Kingdom leaves the European Union at the end of the month, it will sever ties with Europe’s farm subsidy policies—and to many researchers, that is a good thing. This week, the U.K. government proposed radical changes to £3 billion a year in agricultural spending that will focus the money on benefits to climate, ecosystems, and the public. “It’s dramatic and utterly critical,” says Dieter Helm, an economist at the University of Oxford. “This is an agricultural revolution.”
more
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/01 ... -subsidies
Indeed. However, as the last paragraph hints:
Other countries will be watching closely, too, says Alan Matthews, an agricultural economist at Trinity College Dublin, who studies European agricultural policy. “If it’s been successful, that will be a very powerful argument for the Europeans to follow.”
In other words, leaving subsidies as a tool with some goals alone, smaller institutions (UK) are usually able to react quicker to societal dynamics then larger ones (EU). So we will be watching and likely copy sooner or later. Pressure on environmental awareness is real these days.