Ploughshares into Pipettes

The UK has an unhealthy obsession with farming. Romantic notions fuelled by H.E Bates novels and tv programmes about the lives of farming means that farming occupies a disproportionately large section of the UK’s psyche. Moreover, paranoia over food security whipped up by sections of the media and the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) has seen farming elevated into a lofty position in the country’s concerns.

Not only is this an odd state of affairs, it is also holding the economy back. In economic terms agriculture is completely insignificant. Rearing pigs and cattle, milking cows, and slaughtering poultry amounts to a paltry 0.6 % of the country’s GDP. What is more, fears over food security are overblown; the UK has not been self-sufficient in food since Queen Victoria was on the throne. There is no viable way for the UK to become self-sufficient when it comes to food, nor should it attempt to. What is more, climate change, Covid, and political instability have shown us that rather than being reliant on a single source for our food, the UK needs to actively work at finding more trading partners if it wants to ensure that the country can feed itself.

The nation’s obsession with agriculture is preventing the economy from growing as it is given priority over the country’s more productive industries such as technology and services. For example, a much lauded ‘Brexit Benefit’ is the potential of striking a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the United States. Most of the FTAs the UK has signed since leaving the EU will do little to boost economic growth (and I say this as someone who worked on them). This is not necessarily a failure on the part of the UK – most FTAs are the same as they don’t focus on services trade. A FTA with the US has the potential to be the exception. It would be very significant for the UK’s key industries such as financial services and technology. 

However, it is highly unlikely to ever materialise. Fear mongering over chlorinated chicken and hormone treated beef and the impact on farmers peddled by the NFU, celebrity chefs, and the tabloids will mean that an agreement will not be possible. This has been the case with the negotiations with Canada to upgrade that FTA which have come to a halt in order to appease the farming lobbies in both countries. 

All of this means that the UK’s productive industries cannot benefit from better trading conditions, consumers are deprived of greater choice and cheaper food, and the environment suffers. It is time for the UK to adopt a radically different approach to agriculture in order to grow the economy.

In all future trade negotiations the UK should be prepared to give away the farm. All agricultural tariffs and quotas should be scrapped. The same should apply to the majority of subsidies. The government should not sacrifice the country’s prosperity and hold back its most productive industries in order to prop up the nation’s unproductive agriculture sector. 

Such a move would see an influx of cheap food into the country which would displace domestic produce and likely see many UK farmers go out of business. This would actually be a good thing for the country. The land previously dedicated to environmentally destructive intensive farming would be put to better use by providing much needed space for homes, offices, labs, and energy infrastructure which would boost productivity and help serve the country’s technology and services industries. The money currently spent in the form of subsidies to prop up unproductive agriculture could instead be spent by the government on supporting the science and technology sector with the aim of significantly increasing the proportion of GDP spent on R&D. Furthermore, cheaper food would mean that consumers would have more money in their pocket to spend in other parts of the economy. 

A caveat to this is that we should not see a trade deal with the US as a panacea. A trade deal with any single country will not deliver economic growth. As I’ve written before, there are limits to ‘Export Led Growth’. Also, gravity still matters when it comes to trade and so we should prioritise a closer trading relationship with the EU over somewhere on the other side of the world (if we have to choose).

Moreover, all this is not to say that the UK should abandon agriculture entirely. British farmers should be supported in this transition by the government ensuring that any subsidies are used to invest in new technologies to increase productivity. What is more, the government should give farmers every assistance in making the most of new trade deals by helping them to export their produce around the world. UK farmers should be supported by the government and helped to promote their produce around the world for what it is: delicious and high quality. It should be marketed as such with adverts and packaging in markets such as the US blazoned with Union Jacks and copy on how the beef comes from cows who graze on beautiful meadows and are served by their own personal bovine butler. Expensive, sure – but worth every dollar. Export promotion, not protectionism is the way to go for UK agriculture. Some subsidies could also remain to allow farmers to move from agriculture to rewilding the land in order to improve biodiversity and protect the environment.

Such a move would no doubt be painful and deeply unpopular. However, the UK government should grasp the nettle and follow the example of Australia and New Zealand. It is time to ditch nostalgic notions about farming and accept reality and play to the country’s strengths. Priority should be given to the most productive and successful sectors of the economy over agriculture. Farming needs to be deprioritised and the technology and services industries allowed to thrive. This is the only way that the UK will get to enjoy economic growth. 

Thanks as ever for reading. If you enjoy Opportunity Lost and would like to support it then you can do so here: https://buymeacoffee.com/opportunitylost

As I mentioned yesterday I am aiming to write something every week day during the election campaign so there should be another post dropping on Monday (although not as much as the Conservative Party’s prospects).

Have a great weekend!