Doing things differently: the importance of UK agriculture policy

Agriculture is at the heart of some of the most significant challenges faced by policymakers in the UK and the EU. Farming and food policy is hugely consequential to whether we can slow climate change and mitigate its impact, how we feed a global population of over 9 billion, and how we prevent ill-health and disease in societies across the world. The UK government has already signalled its intention to amend regulation for novel food, create a new farming subsidy framework, and launch the second part of its landmark National Food Strategy later this year. 

The complexity of these forthcoming policy choices are matched only by the tough political choices they represent for politicians in both the UK and the EU. So in the final edition of our series on the policy and politics of post-Brexit regulation, Seema Kennedy OBE, former UK government minister and senior political aide to Prime Minister Theresa May; Elizabeth Beall, Practice Lead, climate and sustainability; and Geoffrey Norris, Senior Adviser discussed:

• Whether changes to subsidy schemes to improve the environment can be both good policy and good politics in either the UK or the EU;
• How the politics of carbon pricing are likely to develop between the UK and the EU;
• If innovations in food policy like novel foods and gene-editing can be as groundbreaking as promised.