The pressure is now on to get a future trading relationship agreed before the implementation period ends and to get an Agricultural Bill passed ready to start phasing out direct payments in England. Elsewhere a positive story has emerged for the beef sector with news that students have branded the decision to remove beef from menus at the University of East Anglia a ‘disgrace to democracy’ and the decision has been reversed. Whilst the UK’s largest power station announced plans to store more carbon than it emits.

FOOD & FARMING

Backlash brings beef back
The University of East Anglia (UEA) has put beef back on the menu less than one month after a vote to ban it. Students said it was “a disgrace to the democracy of the university” for the student union council to make the decision without consulting the rest of the University. Anger was also expressed by farmers and Jewish groups at the university, who said it would restrict meal choice for religious students on campus. Sophie Atherton, the union’s campaign and democracy officer, said the original decision was made after the UEA had declared a climate and biodiversity emergency. She added “beef requires 28 times more land… and 11 times more water per calorie” than other meats. The original ban was passed by a margin of just 1%. 53% of the same council voted to overturn the ban with only 36% voting to retain it.

Rudolph likes wonky carrots
Morrisons will give away 125,000 paper bags worth of wonky carrots to children before Christmas. The “Carrots for Rudolph” bags will be handed out from the entrances of 493 Morrisons stores on 21 December. It aims to introduce them to the wonky veg concept, and to encourage families to buy the range which helps tackle food waste. It will also be giving out Christmas oranges on 22 December with a card explaining the history of the tradition.

While carrots are still in plentiful supply for Christmas, shortages are likely in the spring. Torrential downpours and flooding have affected more than half of the UK’s carrot growing area, with only crops in Scotland and some parts of East Anglia unaffected. 2019 was proving to be an exceptional growing season for carrots with quality and yields above average. There is now a very high risk of further losses to frost damage as the wet weather has prevented straw being put down to protect the crop.

Women in agriculture
A survey across the entire food supply chain by Women in Food and Agriculture (WFA) has revealed that 58% feel women are well represented in the industry. It showed promise for the future with 79% believing that their organisation is becoming more inclusive. 97% of women surveyed also indicated confidence in their ability to positively impact the future of the industry and create a path to greater inclusivity. However the results suggest more work needs to be done to ensure pay is equal, 5% of men thought that women were unfairly compensated compared to 20% of women. There were over 2,500 respondents, 72% of which were female. All major agriculture sectors were represented with 20% of respondents being farmers.

Bird flu outbreak leads to chicken cull
An outbreak of low pathogenic avian flu (H5N3) has been confirmed at a Suffolk farm. A one kilometre exclusion zone has been set up to reduce the risk of the disease spreading, and all 27,000 chickens will be humanely culled. Chief Veterinary Officer Christine Middlemiss has said “bird keepers should remain alert for any signs of disease, report suspected disease immediately and ensure they are maintaining good bio-security on their premises”. Click here for further information including symptoms.

Backtracking on food standards?
Defra Secretary Theresa Villiers has been accused of back tracking on setting up a Trade and Food Commission. NFU president Minette Batters said Ms Villiers had shown “no commitment” to move forwards with her predecessor’s cast-iron guarantee. The NFU had hoped the commission would make recommendations on how future food trade policy should be formulated before the end of 2019. Yet progress has stalled since Michael Gove left the position. Ms Batters is also concerned by the lack of engagement from the Department for International Trade, because Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been talking about higher standards, but the Department is silent in this area and its Secretary of State Liz Truss has not met the union in the six months she has been in post.

Scotland: Less favoured area support confirmed
The Scottish Government has offered loans to hill and upland farmers and crofters to provide them with financial support and certainty. Under the national Less Favoured Areas Support Loan Scheme 2019, eligible farmers and crofters will be offered up to 95% of their Common Agricultural Policy LFASS payment. Payments will be made from mid-January to anyone who returns their loan offer acceptance by 17 January 2020.

England: BPS entitlement issue
Some Basic Payment Scheme claimants are receiving letters from the RPA notifying them that entitlements had been awarded improperly in 2015 and that they will be recovered. If you are affected by this issue please contact Andrew Wraith for advice.

Health and Safety survey
The NFU, AHDB and VetPartners have launched a survey to help understand current attitudes towards farm health and safety. The fatal injury rate in agriculture is currently 18 times higher than the all industry rate.

Probe into badger cull licence refusal
The NFU has applied for a judicial review to be conducted into Defra’s decision to not grant badger culling licences to help control bovine TB in Derbyshire.

POLICY

A majority government to reduce rural uncertainty?
After an historic December General Election, the Conservative Party has secured its biggest victory since Margaret Thatcher triumphed in 1987. The party has achieved an absolute majority by winning 365 seats. Labour meanwhile saw its greatest defeat in living memory, losing 59 seats compared to the 2017 election, as seat after seat in previous Labour strongholds swung from red to blue. Boris Johnson’s gamble to call a Christmas Election paid off, as voters were won over by his promise that he would ‘get Brexit done’.

The Prime Minister started a minor reshuffle of his cabinet on Monday by appointing Simon Hart as Welsh Secretary. Zac Goldsmith, the junior minister responsible for forestry, animal welfare and food chain policy, lost his seat, so an appointment at Defra is expected. Labour’s Shadow Environment Secretary Sue Hayman was another casualty at the ballot box. A Queen’s speech on Thursday 19 December will pave the way for the Withdrawal Agreement Bill to be re-introduced to parliament before Christmas (20 December most likely). With a strong majority and the remain versus leave vote more closely aligned along party lines the risk of a no-deal Brexit has reduced, Boris Johnson should be able to deliver his promise to leave the EU on 31 January 2020. To double down on its manifesto commitment that the transition/implementation period will not be extended, the Government is planning to amend the Withdrawal Agreement Bill so that it legally prohibits government agreeing an extension. This will mean the transition/implementation period would end by default on 31 December 2020.

What does this mean for the rural sector?
In England we expect the Agriculture Bill to be reintroduced with minor changes only, so agricultural policy post Brexit will transition payments towards ‘public money for public goods’ and focus on enhancing the environment. Time is running out to get the legislation in place for this transition to begin in 2021. The Secretary of State is likely to come under increased pressure to defer the start of the transition period in England, particularly because Scotland, Wales and the EU are all remaining on a BPS based scheme for 2021. Farmers have gained welcome certainty that the current farm support budget is guaranteed for the duration of this parliament; this could extend until 2024 although the Conservative government is expected to amend the Fixed-Term Parliament Act due to the difficulties it faced calling this election. In his manifesto Boris Johnson confirmed that he will not compromise on environmental and animal welfare standards, however the reality of this promise in post-Brexit trade deals is unknown. On the issue of agricultural labour, the Conservative manifesto stated it would increase the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Scheme’s annual quota. The National Food Strategy commissioned by the previous Conservative government will continue. The 2019 Environment Bill will likely be re-introduced, which proposes legal environmental targets, mandating the polluter pays principle, and includes plans to set up a new independent Office for Environmental Protection. The Conservatives also promised £640 million for a new Nature for Climate fund, which will focus on nature restoration country wide.

State of the union
The Scottish National Party (SNP) won 48 seats in Scotland and secured 45% of the vote, both have increased significantly compared to the 2017 election when the party won 35 seats and secured 37% of the vote. The Conservative party lost seven Scottish seats and now holds just six. SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon has said "Scotland has sent a very clear message - we don't want a Boris Johnson government, we don't want to leave the EU”. Arguing the result "renews, reinforces and strengthens" the mandate for ‘Indyref2’ Ms Sturgeon has confirmed her intention is to make an official request seeking the legal power to hold an independence referendum. However the Conservatives (as a unionist party) would be unlikely to concede to the SNPs wishes when it holds such a large majority. This could open up a debate about the democratic rights of Scottish voters. Across the Irish Sea the Democratic Unionist Party’s (DUP) leader in Westminster Nigel Dodds lost his seat, leaving the DUP with two fewer seats and its share of the vote down 5.4%. Boris Johnson’s strong majority means that the DUP’s influence in Westminster has gone, weakening protection for Northern Irish interests in the EU withdrawal and trade negotiations. In the last couple of weeks leaked documents from both the Treasury and Department for Exiting the European Union have undermined claims which Boris Johnson repeatedly made throughout the election campaign that there would not need to be any checks on goods moving between Northern Ireland and Great Britain. He has dismissed these documents as inaccurate.

Wales: Existing good practice to be rewarded
In its response to the Climate Change, Environment and Rural Affairs Committee Report into its planned Sustainable Farming Scheme, the Welsh Government has confirmed that farmers will be rewarded for existing good practice provided it delivers an outcome the Government is seeking. It also said the restoration of biodiversity must be central to future policy if we are to achieve the level of action needed to maintain and restore nature across Wales. Only activities which deliver over and above the regulatory baseline will be funded so the Welsh Government recognises it must use evidence to set its baseline and strike a balance between ensuring the scheme is accessible and also sufficiently ambitious to restore biodiversity.

NFU policy asks on soil
The NFU has made a number of policy requests focused on soil, which would allow farmers to improve both efficiency and soil health. Its suggestions include:

•  Including soil health within future environmental land management schemes

•  Reliable data collection, knowledge exchange and investment in soil science and research

•  Development of long-term collaborative approaches for peatland management

•  Financial support for new market approaches

•  Ensuring future policy is flexible and not oversimplified

ENVIRONMENT & NATURAL CAPITAL

Estates: good or bad for the environment?
Scottish sporting estates are under the spotlight for both positive and negative contributions to biodiversity and climate outcomes. According to a new report by Revive, a coalition of environmental and animal rights groups for grouse moor reform, driven grouse shooting has made a major contribution to the “treeless landscapes” and “low biodiversity of animals and plants” of the Scottish uplands. The report has found that burning heather, allowing heavy grazing by sheep and deer, and using intensive predator control has caused significant ecological damage. Revive proposes an alternative system to “help tackle climate change, increase biodiversity and benefit Scotland’s people”. It believes a move away from grouse moors will produce an upland landscape composed of “a mosaic of different woodland, scrub and open habitats”.

A separate campaign is encouraging estate owners to step up their efforts to help Scotland meet its climate change targets. The Precious Places campaign aims to highlight the environmental, social and economic benefits delivered all year round by moorland managers. Peatlands are receiving particular attention due to their carbon-storing potential as well as their contributions to water quality and reducing flood risk. Over 20% of Scotland is covered in peatland, but 270,000 hectares show evidence of erosion. Estates across the Tomatin, Speyside, Grampian, Loch Ness and Southern Upland areas are working to repair degraded peatlands and enhance their carbon storage capacity.

Bigger, better forests
Increasing tree cover in the UK is a matter of land use policy, with many current woodland creation schemes being insufficient to overcome fundamental barriers to tree planting, according to a new report. Policy Exchange argues that a level playing field between agriculture and forestry is needed so that forestry is not ‘crowded out’ by subsidies that favour farming above more integrated uses. The report proposes a "Forest of Britain"; a two mile wide corridor running from Land's End to John O'Groats via Wales. While it accepts the approach will not be cheap, Policy Exchange see some of the funding being provided through the planned Environmental Land Management scheme. The corridor would connect conservation sites and nature reserves to promote biodiversity. It also proposes using farm woodland and agroforestry to protect soil and grazing livestock from wind and rain, and managing neglected woodlands to help them resist pests and climate change. If you would like advice about woodland creation please contact Marc Liebrecht.

Blenheim unveils a new land strategy
The Blenheim Estate will pursue a new, revolutionary approach to managing its 12,000 acres of land over the coming decades. Its long term goal is to become the first UK estate to demonstrate carbon-positive land management. The new strategy covers five areas; connecting communities by promoting green travel and creating access routes, sharing the wellbeing benefits of land through social prescribing, valuing natural capital to create new income streams, demonstrating the role of carbon-positive management in tackling climate change, and forming partnerships with producers and artisans to boost the local economy.

PROPERTY & DEVELOPMENT

Scotland: Good Practice Programme and community ownership
The Scottish Land Commission has launched a Good Practice Programme to promote and support change and good practice in the way land is owned and used in both urban and rural Scotland. Its first publications cover community engagement in decisions relating to land and land ownership by trusts. The next protocol to be published will cover transparency in relation to land ownership and management. The Scottish Government has also recently published statistics on assets in community ownership, there are now 593 assets owned by 429 community groups. Overall they cover an area of 209,810 hectares: this is 2.7% of Scotland’s land area and the area has increased by 170,154 hectares since 1990. Four assets account for more than half of the land in community ownership.

BUSINESS & ECONOMY

Power plant to go carbon negative
Drax, the UK’s largest power station, plans to capture more carbon than it produces by 2030. It hopes to scale up a pilot carbon capture and storage system which currently captures a tonne of carbon per day. To do so, it will require its government subsidies to be extended beyond their current 2027 expiry date. Drax hopes to install the system at two of its power generation units which would remove eight million tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere each year. The North Yorkshire facility provides 5% of the UK’s power. Drax has six power generation units. They originally all ran on coal but four have been converted to burn biomass such as wood pellets made from sustainably farmed trees. The remaining two units will close in 2025. To become carbon negative Drax is counting the CO2 which is sequestered by the trees as they grow. This highlights one of the issues with emerging plans to achieve net zero, as both the agricultural industry and power generators are counting this carbon sequestration as part of their own offsetting plans.

OTHER RURAL NEWS

And finally…
Spy oysters fight thieves
French producers have turned to tech to combat a rise in the theft of oysters from their oyster beds. 20 tonnes of oysters were stolen in the first nine months of this year, compared to 15 tonnes over the same period in previous years. Fake, anti-theft molluscs are now being deployed among the real things. They send a warning message to the producers’ smartphone if they experience a sudden change in temperature or unexpected movement. They also contain tracking devices which allow stolen batches to be tracked. The devices are being rented to producers for €10 each per month, which is around the price of a dozen oysters in the supermarket.