Use Brexit to shift to sustainable agriculture, urge researchers

Academics have called for the UK to move away from industrial farming after it exits the European Union.

Dave Goulson, professor of biology at the University of Sussex, said at an event held at the university on 8 September, that the UK should support smaller sustainable farms instead of allocating the majority of its funding to large multi-national companies and wealthy landowners, as happens under the EU’s Common Agriculture Policy.

Goulson said the UK could support more smallholdings without the need to seek approval from the 27 member states of the EU, and that it might even be possible to revive community-based food production initiatives. He called for a return to government-run experimental farms and funding for a new advisory body to offer impartial advice to farmers on how to farm productively and sustainably after Brexit.