ABSTRACT
Following the UK’s departure from the European Union, new Agricultural and Environmental Acts were passed providing legal frameworks for new policy actions in these areas. Outlining some lessons learnt from the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), this chapter focusses specifically on the development of England’s new Environmental Land Management (ELM) schemes. The schemes are being “co-designed” by the government with agricultural stakeholders. It is central to England’s agricultural transition to sustainable farming and aims to reconfigure how farmers and land managers relate to their working environments and nature by paying them to deliver environmental “public goods”. These “goods” include, but are not limited to, clean air, clean water, thriving wildlife and reduced risk from environmental hazards, and this new approach will play a key role in achieving the objectives of the government’s 25-year Environment Plan and commitments such as Net Zero by 2050. This chapter considers the potential implications of these far-reaching changes for farmers, rural communities, and the countryside and casts a critical eye on the “co-design” process, highlighting issues such as inclusiveness, engaging “harder to reach” stakeholders, and why a broader range of people need to be involved in deciding the future of agriculture.
