small farmers’ union the Landworkers’ Alliance (LWA) has produced a list of eight key policy demands for MPs negotiating the UK’s withdrawal from the EU in the wake of June’s Referendum result.

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• Economic – The production of healthy affordable food.
• Environment and animal welfare – The protection of traditional forms of land management, environmental sustainability and animal welfare
• Social – Maintenance of farmers and agricultural workers livelihoods, decent work conditions and community access to agriculture.

3. End discrimination against small farms: LWA has protested against Defra policy in the past, claiming the department discriminates against small farms, even when there is evidence that small farms support more jobs and produce more food per ha than larger farms and carry important environmental, economic and cultural benefits. The union wants Defra to redress this oversight in its new policy package.

4. Create and maintain decent jobs in farming: Possible labour shortages stemming from post-Brexit immigration rules may lead to increases in demand for agricultural workers. LWA wants Defra to seize on this by supporting improving work conditions in the sector, with better work pay and conditions for workers (overseen by an agricultural wages board), capital grants  for new entrants and young farmers, and the launch of schemes encouraging more people into farming, specifically horticulture.
   
5. Improve environmental and welfare standards: With the vast majority of welfare and environment standards set by the EU, the UK’s withdrawal will require a huge amount of work in this area. LWA wants to see mandatory environmental and welfare conditions being put on subsidy payments for farmers. The union wants regulations to be based on ‘sound science’ and the precautionary principle. It also wants:

• Mandatory method-of-production labelling on all meat, dairy, and eggs and clearly displayed pesticide residue data on all crop derived products.
• A moratorium on live export of animals destined for slaughter.
• A robust plan to reduce antibiotic dependence in farming.
• A moratorium on the use of GMO, glyphosate and neonicitinoids unless proven safe beyond doubt.
• A ban on husbandry systems that do not enable animals to express their natural behaviors and rely on routine mutilations.

6. Invest in farmer-led research: LWA believes public research money should be directed towards research and development into the issues facing farmers of all scales and that public funded research should be geared towards finding low-cost, knowledge intensive solutions, rather than helping the private sector develop product-based outcomes. It wants input from a cross-sector farmers’ body in agricultural R&D and a farmer-led extension program focusing on low-input solutions.

7. Build markets that work for farmers: The union also wants mechanisms to improve farmers’ position in the supply chain, tariffs to be applied to imports from areas where food is produced to lower standards and moves to shorten supply chains.

8. Democratize agricultural policy making: The union wants public opinion and civil society to have more of a role in the development of agricultural policies, and greater transparency from the government on how policy is formulated. It also wants the government to develop a long-term, cross-departmental national food and farming policy.

The full report outlining the LWA’s vision can be read here.