In this blog, we will explore the most profound of these changes, examining what the past 25 years have brought to the field of agriculture.
The world approached the new millennium with curiosity and excitement. Now, 25 years later, that curiosity has transformed the agricultural sector, resulting in a policy landscape that looks remarkably different today.
The rise and fall of energy subsidies
In 2009, the government set a genuinely ambitious target: get 30% of our electricity supply from renewable sources by 2020. In 2019, it was 37% renewable. In 2023, renewables generated 42% of the UK's electricity. Achieving and exceeding that target was thanks to several key initiatives:
- The Renewables Obligation, introduced in 2002, required licensed electricity suppliers in England and Wales to supply a growing proportion of their electricity sales from renewable sources.
- The Feed-in Tariff (FiT), introduced in 2010, offered payments for electricity generated from renewable sources (generation tariff) and any electricity subsequently sent to the grid (export tariff).
The second scheme proved particularly popular, and for farmers acted as an incentive to begin considering renewables as an opportunity to diversify. In February 2016, the total capacity of new installations under the scheme was capped nationally. By 2019, the scheme was closed to new applicants. Although FiT and similar subsidies like the Renewable Heat Incentive have faced criticism for their cost to taxpayers, they have been crucial in transitioning the energy system and making renewable energy affordable and viable.
The era of farm payments
The last 25 years have seen change after change in frameworks for farm payments. 2005 saw the advent of the single farm payment under the EU's Common Agricultural Policy, which aimed to “decouple” farm payments from being linked to the production of specific crops. Instead, payments were offered based on the value of entitlements held by each farmer. Also in 2005 environmental stewardship schemes were established, which replaced environmentally sensitive areas and countryside stewardship schemes.
In 2015, the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) came into effect, replacing the Single Payment Scheme. BPS continued the trend of decoupling payments from production but with added emphasis on environmental and land management standards. Looking back, BPS was a significant step towards integrating environmental considerations into agricultural policy, introducing greening measures and payments and hinting at what farm payments would become.
The transition from CAP to the Environmental Land Management (ELM) schemes following Brexit and the Agriculture Act in 2020 marked a pivotal shift in UK agricultural policy and the start of the “agricultural transition”. ELM, introduced post-CAP (and still in play, for now) focuses on paying farmers for delivering environmental goods and services alongside food production: “public money for public goods”, aiming to create a more sustainable and resilient agricultural sector.
The sustainable farming incentive (SFI), which forms part of ELM, proved popular – as of April 2024, over 2 million hectares of land in England were part of the scheme. SFI is now paused and will be reformed, leaving uncertainty for the future of farm payments. Agriculture has been supported in some way, shape or form since 1947 – perhaps the next 25 years will see more change for farm support, as the industry looks for private funding opportunities to bridge the gap.
Climate change
Unsurprisingly, a quarter of a century has brought with it significant shifts in climate-related policies. The journey began with the Climate Change Act 2008, a landmark piece of legislation that set legally binding targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 80% by 2050 compared to 1990 levels. The UK was the first country to establish a long-term, legally binding framework to cut carbon emissions. For agriculture, this meant a push towards more sustainable practices, including improved soil management, reduced methane emissions from livestock and enhanced energy efficiency on farms.
Following closely, the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009 set ambitious targets for Scotland, aiming for a 42% reduction in emissions by 2020 and 80% by 2050. Farmers in Scotland were encouraged to adopt regenerative agriculture practices, conduct carbon audits and implement soil testing to reduce emissions.
In 2018, the UK government launched the 25-Year Environment Plan, setting out a strategy to improve the environment within a generation. The plan emphasised habitat restoration, sustainable farming practices and the creation of wildlife-rich habitats. The Environment Act 2021 further reinforced the UK's commitment to environmental protection. It introduced legally binding targets for air quality, biodiversity, water and waste reduction. This Act also established the Office for Environmental Protection to oversee compliance and enforce regulations.
Genomics: a 25-year pause?
In 2003, international standards were established to assess the safety of genetically modified organisms (GMO) as food. The World Health Organisation and the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations created these guidelines in response to the introduction of GMO products in the 1990s.
In the UK and EU, legislation around GMOs has been fairly static and restrictive since 2003. Even so, research continued in the background, research that led to the discovery of gene editing technologies like CRISPR-Cas-9. This technology created an important distinction between genetic editing (GE) and genetic modification that came to be reflected in the Genetic Technology (Precision Breeding) Act 2023.
The Act removed precision-bred plants and animals from the regulatory requirements applicable to other genetically modified organisms. It separated organisms whose genomes have been altered using modern biotechnology into two distinct categories:
- Genetically modified organisms: contain genes from a sexually incompatible species that could not occur through traditional breeding.
- Precision-bred organisms (PBOs): include genetic changes that could have occurred naturally or through traditional breeding methods. Also commonly referred to as gene editing.
This means the regulation of PBOs is now more permissive and more in-field research can be conducted. It is not inconceivable that GE foods will become commonplace in the next 25 years.
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