51AVÊÓƵ

A leading agrisupply group has told Farmers Guardian it is ‘difficult to predict’ if new controls on EU imports will have an impact on input prices for farmers.

The NFU has said leaving the EU provides England with an opportunity to take a different approach to reducing nitrate pollution.

A top agricultural lawyer has warned the English agriculture budget could be swallowed up by non-farmers after the Brexit transition period ends.

Green groups have warned the environment could be under threat as cross-compliance provisions fall away in the coming years.

The Government’s new green watchdog should be given the power to determine whether future farming budgets are high enough to deliver desired environmental outcomes, a leading ecological body has said.

Former NFU president and AHDB chairman Sir Peter Kendall admitted he was ‘not confident’ that the Government would reject imported food produced to lower standards but fearful they may go instead for ‘bucketshop’ deals.

The issue of food standards for imported food is not going away as Secretary of State for Scotland Douglas Ross MP discovered when he addressed the NFUS conference in Glasgow.

Almost four years on from the referendum, we still don’t know whether farmers will be able to sell into the EU market or if they’ll be undercut by substandard imports, says Deirdre Brock, SNP spokesperson for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

We in the EU are sad to see our friends in Britain leave, but we will always welcome you back if you change your mind, says Eamon Cassells, a young beef farmer from County Meath in Ireland.

Now we’ve left the EU, it can no longer be blamed for difficult or unpopular decisions, particularly on trade. In future, UK and devolved Ministers must take full responsibility for their actions, says John Davies, NFU Cymru president.