FARMERS for BRITAIN

The Referendum on our place in Europe has already brought with it a sense of hysteria, with fear-mongering from those who want to stay in. “You can’t trust a British government to support our industry.” “Where would we be without the CAP?” Many farmers I have spoken to are unsure. There are the committed outers, a few committed inners, and a lot of farmers who are feeling uncomfortable sitting on a very sharp fence! As I look at the industry today the new Basic Farm Payment i

A vision for a new UK agriculture policy I regard myself as pro-European. I like the idea of countries cooperating together. After the terrible events in Brussels yesterday, we should stand shoulder to shoulder with Belgium and other partners to confront terrorism. However, there is a difference between being pro-European and being in favour of the EU system of government. At the heart of the debate about EU membership is one central question. Is it better to have control an

I am probably representative of farmers with smaller farms or smallholdings who have dropped out of the complex and time consuming subsidy schemes or even dropped out of farming altogether. We just want to be outside in the fields producing the best quality food for the family table. The hours are long and the hourly rate below minimum wage but it is a job we love. The last thing we want is to come in after a long day to be faced by a stack of paperwork and compliance.

Dr Mary Abbott, former editor of Inside Track magazine, on why UK farmers shouldn't heed the scaremongering of the 'Remain' campaign: David Cameron says UK farmers would suffer outside the EU, but is that true? The Government paper “The Process for Withdrawing from the European Union” cites the impact of losing the EU’s subsidy schemes and preferential access to the European market if the UK left the EU without a successor agreement in place. Examination of these two aspects

Cambridgeshire arable farmer Colin Barker on why he's voting to leave: As a farmer, most people would expect me to be in favour of staying in the EU as I receive a cheque from them every year for a not insubstantial amount. However, I have become totally disillusioned with the way the EU is now acting. They are undemocratic, not answerable to anyone, and what seems to me to be most worrying is their apparent attempt to create the old Soviet Bloc in western Europe. I predicte

David Cameron describes leaving the EU as a 'leap in the dark' for the UK. And to a certain degree he is right. However, what those in the 'remain' camp fail to acknowledge is that staying IN the EU would equally be a leap in the dark, but one over which we would have much less control. This is particularly the case for UK agriculture. We have no more idea of what the CAP will look like in 10 years than we do of what an independent UK agricultural policy may look like post-Br