Abstract

Across the European Union, the receipt of agricultural subsidisation is increasingly being predicated on the delivery of public goods. In the English context, in particular, these changes can be seen in the redirection of money to the new Environmental Land Management scheme. Such shifts reflect the changed expectations that society is placing on agriculture—from something that provides one good (food) to something that supplies many (food, access to green spaces, healthy rural environment, flood resilience, reduced greenhouse gas emissions). Whilst the reasons behind the changes are well documented, understanding how these shifts are being experienced by the managers expected to deliver on these new expectations is less well understood. Bourdieu’s social theory and the good farmer concept are used to attend to this blind spot, and to provide timely insight as the country progresses along its public goods subsidy transition. Evidence from 65 interviews with 40 different interviewees (25 of whom gave a repeat interview) show a general willingness towards the transition to a public goods model of subsidisation. The optimisation and efficiency that has historically characterised the productivist identity is colouring the way managers are approaching the delivery of public goods. Ideas of land sparing and land sharing (and the farming preference for the former over the latter) are used to help understand these new social and attitudinal realities. The policy implications of these findings are discussed, with reference to the new scheme’s ‘priority themes’.

Highlights

  • Catalysed by the Brexit process, England is set to experience major shifts in the design of its agricultural subsidy system (Helm 2017)

  • By using the good farmer concept and Bourdieu’s social theory, this paper provides some answers to the research questions described in the paper’s introduction

  • The analysis presented here comes from a PhD project cofunded by Natural England (NE), designed to look into the long-term social and management changes catalysed through participation in an agri-environment scheme (AES)

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Summary

Introduction

Catalysed by the Brexit process, England is set to experience major shifts in the design of its agricultural subsidy system (Helm 2017). England’s Department for the Environment and Rural Affairs (Defra) have revealed the direction of travel for the country’s system of farm subsidies. Direct payments are to be tapered off over the 2021–2027 transition period, with the money being redirected to an ambitious agri-environment scheme (AES): Environmental Land Management (ELM). In describing these plans, Defra has availed of language that reveals the principles behind the changes. 7) funds from the current subsidy model in which payments are “skewed towards the largest landowners and are not linked to any specific public benefits” The scheme will “free up” (Defra 2018a, p. 7) funds from the current subsidy model in which payments are “skewed towards the largest landowners and are not linked to any specific public benefits” (Defra 2018a, p. 5)

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