Bittersweet Brexit : the future of food, farming, land and labour / Charlie Clutterbuck PhD.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Clutterbuck, Charlie, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Agriculture and state--Great Britain.

Agriculture and state.

Great Britain.

Food industry and trade--Great Britain.

Food industry and trade.

Agricultural laborers--Great Britain.

Agricultural laborers.

European Union--Great Britain.

European Union.

Physical Description:

xvii, 262 pages : illustrations, map ; 22 cm

Place of Publication:

London : Pluto Press, 2017.

Summary:

Although widely criticised and hugely wasteful, the Common Agricultural Policy did at least afford British farmers a degree of support. Post-Brexit, that support will vanish - to be replaced with a woefully misconceived agricultural export drive that cannot possibly deliver. Bittersweet Brexit suggests a solution: paying workers decent wages in the agricultural sector could radically transform the nature of farming in Britain. It would improve yields, increase sustainability and ensure greater self-sufficiency at a time when food security is becoming a vital issue. This scenario provides a forward-thinking future for food and farming in Britain, which, unlike many other industries, is currently being ignored. Book jacket.

Contents:

Part I The State We're In

1 All Change 3

Up for Grabs 7

Where We Are Now 9

Imports/Exports 10

Markets 12

How We Got Here 13

Corn Laws 13

After the Second World War 14

My View 17

Overproduction 21

2 Coming Out 28

If, How and When ... 28

Tables Turned 28

Brexit 30

Opportunities 32

Challenges 34

Doing the Deal 37

Owf of the Single Market 37

But Inside the Free-trade Zone 38

Outside the Single Market but Inside the Customs Union 38

Leaving the Customs Union Too 39

Brexiteers v Free Traders 39

Tariffs 41

Sanitary Measures 45

3 Moving On 47

Going Global 47

Challenges 50

Buying British 52

Challenges 57

Part II Society

4 Trade 63

Food Trade Deficit 63

Mad Markets 66

Globalisation 69

World Trade Organisation 70

EU Single Market 72

Doing Deals Elsewhere 74

United States of America 75

BRICS 75

Commonwealth 77

Food Futures Markets 79

Food Prices 81

E-Food Trading 81

5 Labour 83

Fruits of Our Labour 83

Migrant Workers 84

Plantations 88

Agricultural Science Worker 92

Agricultural Wages Board (AWB) 94

Farm Fatalities 98

They're Off! 99

Technofix 102

Investment 103

Technology and Labour 105

Subsidise Land Workers not Landowners 106

6 Land 109

Not All Land is the Same 111

Agri-Environment Schemes 113

Forestry 114

Land Use 117

Save Our Arable Land! 119

Erosion 119

Carbon 120

Where Has All the Carbon Gone? 122

Soil Health 123

Soil Animals 124

Birth of the Earth 126

Who Should be Doing What? 127

Land Research 130

Lost Land Research 131

Questions 134

Part III Farm and Food Science

7 Sustainability 139

Land 140

Energy 141

Air 142

Water 143

Nitrogen 144

Pesticides 145

Biodiversity 145

1 Crops and Creatures 146

2 Food Products 146

3 Seed Banks 147

4 Biodiversity Action Plan 147

Waste 148

Sustainable Diets 150

8 Obesity 151

Fats or Carbs? 152

Flawed or Fraud? 153

Saccharine Disease 155

Dietary Guidelines 156

Hard to Swallow 160

9 Pesticides 162

Insecticides 162

Herbicides 165

Digging up the Dirt 167

Post Brexit 171

March for Science 174

10 Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) 176

Tomato Case Study 177

Purple Tomato 177

Kumato 179

Private 179

Public 181

Concerns 182

Citizen's Panel 187

Part IV The Future

11 Favourite Foods 191

Full British 'Brexfast' 191

Lunch 197

Afternoon Tea 199

At the Bar 203

Evening Meals 206

12 What We Can Do 216

Identity 217

Predictions 220

Proposals 1 Society 222

Priority - subsidies 222

Proposals 2 Science 227

Proof of the Pudding 229

Personal 229

Practical 231

Policy 231

Principles 233.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780745337715

0745337716

9780745337708

0745337708

OCLC:

990847926