‘We’re only seeing the negative’: UK farmers on Brexit and losing the common agricultural policy
-In the third of our series looking at the impact of the Brexit trade deal, the Guardian talks to farmers about the difficulties they face

“我们只看到了消极的一面”:英国农民对脱欧和失去共同农业政策感到不满
——在我们关于英国脱欧贸易协议影响的系列文章的第三篇中,《卫报》与农民谈论了他们面临的困难


(Ian Rickman at his Gurnos farm in the village of Bethlehem, near Llandeilo, Wales.)

(伊恩·里克曼在他位于威尔士兰代洛附近伯利恒村的Gurnos农场。)
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Sitting in his 18th-century farmhouse in the uplands of Bethlehem, in the breathtaking western reaches of the Brecon Beacons, Ian Rickman ponders the damage Brexit has done to his future. Two years since the UK quit the EU, the future for mountain sheep-farmers such as him is full of economic precarity.

伊恩·里克曼坐在他位于伯利恒高地的18世纪农舍里,思索着英国脱欧对他的未来造成的损害。英国退出欧盟两年来,像他这样的山区牧羊农民的未来充满了经济不稳定。

He has lost unfettered access to his nearest export market, faces reduction in farm subsidies as the result of the loss of the common agricultural policy (CAP), and has been disadvantaged by trade deals giving access to the UK market to rival farmers from Australia and New Zealand.

他失去了通往最近出口市场的自由通道,由于失去了共同农业政策,他面临着农业补贴的减少,而且由于贸易协议允许澳大利亚和新西兰的竞争对手进入英国市场,他处于不利地位。

“From a sheep farmer’s point of view, there’s no good outcome from those trade deals,” says Rickman.

里克曼说:“从牧羊农民的角度来看,这些贸易协议没有好的结果。”

“Their predominant international markets are China and the far east. Why give them access to the UK? At the moment we are fine, but if for some reason there were, God forbid, a Ukrainian-type situation in the far east and sanctions imposed overnight, they will use the huge access to our market,” he says.

“他们主要的国际市场是中国和远东地区。为什么要让他们进入英国?目前我们还好,但如果出于某种原因,天知道,万一远东地区也出现了乌克兰式的局势,一夜之间就实施了制裁,他们将利用进入我们市场的巨大渠道,”他表示。

It is a subject that jangles the nerves of farmers across Wales who see Brexit as all downside.

这是一个刺激威尔士农民神经的话题,他们认为英国脱欧只会带来负面影响。

“A great deal is something more beneficial to agriculture. At the moment we haven’t, we’re only seeing the negative,” says Rickman. “There’s no way you can dress those trade deals up as a as a good thing. I’ve heard farmers say the industry was more or less chucked under a bus.”

“好的协议对农业更有利。但目前还没有,我们只看到了消极的一面。”里克曼说。“你不可能把这些贸易协议包装成一件好事。我听农民们说,这个行业或多或少受到了打击。”

Guto Bebb, the managing director of the Farmers’ unx of Wales (FUW), says his counterparts in Australia are very pleased with the contingency they now have if the Chinese market were to be closed off.

威尔士农民联盟常务董事古托·贝布表示,如果中国市场被关闭,他的澳大利亚同行们对他们现在拥有的(进入英国市场的)应急措施非常满意。

“But where’s our insurance policy after losing the single market? We don’t have one,” he says.

“但在失去单一市场后,我们自己的保险政策在哪里呢?我们没有,”他说。

A study by the statutory levy body the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board has concluded that New Zealand exports to the UK would rise by “about 13,000 tonnes (31%) if China imposed a 25% tariff on New Zealand lamb imports and 29,000 tonnes (69%) if there was an outright ban.”

法定征税机构农业和园艺发展局的一项研究得出结论,如果中国对新西兰羊肉进口征收25%的关税,新西兰对英国的出口将增加约1.3万吨(31%),如果完全禁止新西兰羊肉进口,那么新西兰对英国的出口将增加2.9万吨(69%)。

Energy prices for everyone are going through the roof, while at the same time the cost of selling to the EU, which represents 33% of the lamb export market, has also spiralled.

每个人的能源价格都在飙升,与此同时,向欧盟销售羊肉的成本也在螺旋式上升,占羊肉出口市场的33%。

A cross-industry veterinary and environmental health group, the Sanitary and Phytosanitary Certification Working Group, estimated that the new requirement for export health certificates, signed off by a vet, added £60m to the cost of food exports to Europe in 2021.

一个跨行业的兽医和环境卫生组织——卫生和植物卫生认证工作组估计,对出口卫生证书由兽医签署的新要求,将使2021年出口到欧洲的食品成本增加6000万英镑。

“It hasn’t been doomsday, but it is a question of more and more problems being added to trade,” says Bebb. “Brexit barriers are so unnecessary and for so little gain.”

“这还不是世界末日,但这是一个被添加到贸易上的越来越严重的问题,” 贝布说。“脱欧壁垒是如此不必要,而且收效甚微。”

Mountain sheep farming is a tough business, with many hill farmers unable to survive without subsidies, threatening not just livelihoods but the presence of a farmer as pastoral keeper of the land, which in Rickman’s case is part of one of Wales’s national parks.

山地牧羊是一项艰难的营生,许多山里人没有补贴就无法生存,不仅威胁到生计,还威胁到农民作为土地牧民的存在,就里克曼而言,他的土地是威尔士国家公园之一的一部分。

Before returning to the subject of Brexit, Rickman talks of the importance of sheep grazing the uplands to keep grasses down and minimising the risk of climate change wildfires with tinder dry detritus building up.

在回到英国脱欧的话题之前,里克曼谈到了绵羊在高原上吃草,以减少草地的生长,并将气候变化引起的野火的风险降至最低的重要性。
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Sitting in his kitchen, Rickman explains how his farming sector has been cushioned from the worst of Brexit as inflation has driven up the price of red meat.

里克曼坐在厨房里,解释了他的农业产业是如何在英国脱欧最糟糕的情况下得到缓冲的,因为通货膨胀推高了红肉的价格。

Figures for 2020-21 show income from cattle and sheep farming in “less favoured areas” up 32% to £29,900. In other years it has been dangerously low – in 2017, the president of the FUW said it had dipped to £13,000, less than half the national average wage.

2020- 2021年的数据显示,在“不太受欢迎的地区”,牛羊养殖的收入增长了32%,达到2.99万英镑。在其他年份,工资一直处于危险的低水平——2017年,英国劳工联合会的负责人表示,工资已降至1.3万英镑,不到全国平均工资的一半。

Brexit, the government said, was about giving farmers “for the first time in 50 years [the] chance to do things differently”.

政府表示,英国脱欧是为了给农民“50年来第一次以不同的方式做事的机会”。

George Eustice, then the environment secretary, asserted in 2020 that “it makes no sense to subsidise land ownership and tenure where the largest subsidy payments too often go to the wealthiest landowners”.

时任环境大臣乔治·尤斯蒂斯在2020年断言,“补贴土地所有权和使用权毫无意义,因为最大的补贴往往流向最富有的土地所有者”。

Among the beneficiaries of CAP direct payments, which were made per hectare, were the Brexiter James Dyson, who received more than £5m from the EU, and the former Daily Mail editor Paul Dacre, who pocketed £88,000 for his Scottish Langwell estate in one year alone.

共同农业政策按公顷直接支付的受益者包括脱欧派人士詹姆斯·戴森,他从欧盟获得了500多万英镑;以及前《每日邮报》编辑保罗·戴克,仅一年时间,他在苏格兰朗威尔的庄园就获得了8.8万英镑。
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But the National Farmers’ unx (NFU) and the FUW fear for the small farmers who are dependent on the CAP. MPs on the Welsh affairs committee expressed concern in 2022 “that around a fifth of Welsh farms had a farm business income of less than zero” with an average income of £26,000 per farm. Government research shows that the subsidy is the difference between profit and loss for 42% of farms in the UK.

但全国农民联盟和英国劳工联合会担心依赖共同农业政策的小农。威尔士事务委员会的议员在2022年表示担心,“大约五分之一的威尔士农场的农场业务收入低于零”,每个农场的平均收入为2.6万英镑。政府研究表明,有没有补贴决定着英国42%的农场是盈利还是亏损。

Launched in 1962 as a partnership between agriculture and society, the CAP was envisaged as an income support scheme after research showed farmers’ income was 40% lower than non-agricultural incomes.

共同农业政策作为农业和社会之间的伙伴关系于1962年推出,在研究表明农民收入比非农业收入低40%之后,被设想为一项收入支持计划。

“I don’t get government support [EU subsidy] and then squirrel it away in my Swiss bank account or go off to Barbados. That doesn’t happen. That money goes straight out to the local businesses,” says Rickman, referring the vet, the mechanic, the feed supplier and the fence contractor. “Farming is the backbone of the rural economy.”

“我得不到政府的支持(欧盟补贴),然后把它存在我的瑞士银行账户里,或者去巴巴多斯。这种情况不会发生。这些钱直接流向了当地企业,”里克曼说,他指的是兽医、机械师、饲料供应商和围栏承包商。“农业是农村经济的支柱。”

Agriculture is a devolved competency and as Wales is still designing the replacement for the CAP, farmers such as Rickman are still getting direct payments.

农业是一个权力下放的领域,并且由于威尔士仍在设计共同农业政策的替代方案,像里克曼这样的农民仍能获得直接补贴。

But Wales has accused Westminster of a political sleight of hand when carving up the amounts across the four nations of the UK.

但威尔士指责威斯敏斯特在英国的四个联合国家分配这笔款项时耍了政治花招。

The FUW has calculated Wales will be £225m down over the life of the current parliament on the basis that it had not yet used up all of the EU funding.

英国劳工联合会计算出,在本届议会任期内,威尔士将减少2.25亿英镑,因为它还没有用完所有的欧盟资金。
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“It is political games. We take the view that the Westminster government is guilty of breaching a manifesto promise that it would match spending pound for pound,” says Bebb.

“这是政治游戏。我们认为,威斯敏斯特政府违反了宣言中的承诺,即它将匹配每一英镑的支出,”贝布说。

“Just because some of the money has not been spent does not mean it has not been allocated to a project. We’ve had a bypass near me open recently that was funded by the EU in 2020. You are allowed overhangs if projects take time to get up and running and completed,” he adds.

“只是因为一些钱没有花出去,并不意味着它没有分配到一个项目上。最近在我附近开通了一条旁路,它是由欧盟在2020年资助的。如果项目启动、运行和完成都需要时间,那么你就可以允许延期。”

In Scotland, there is a similar gripe. The country reckons it will lose out on approximately £93m between 2021-25.

在苏格兰,也有类似的抱怨。该国估计,在2021年至2025年期间,它将损失约9300万英镑。

A Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) spokesperson said: “The 2019 manifesto commitment maintains the annual farming budget of £2.4bn until 2024-25, with all reductions from farmers’ direct payments being reinvested back into the sector.”

英国环境、食品和农村事务部发言人表示:“2019年的宣言承诺将在2024-25年之前保持24亿英镑的年度农业预算,农民直接支付的所有削减都将重新投资到该领域。”

They added that the CAP “did nothing to improve food production or food security and gave half the budget to the largest 10% of landowners”. The replacement scheme would “support the choices” and incentivise better farming, they said.

他们补充说,共同农业政策“没有改善粮食生产或粮食安全,而是把一半的预算给了10%最大的土地所有者”。他们说,替代计划将“支持选择”并激励更好的农业。

In England, the phasing out of the CAP is well under way with a new environmental land management scheme (ELMs) that will prioritise better practices in farming and environmental protection with financial incentives for moves such as reduction in fertiliser use or the maintenance of moorlands.

在英格兰,随着一项新的环境土地管理计划的实施,共同农业政策的逐步淘汰工作正在顺利进行,该计划将优先考虑农业和环境保护方面的更好做法,并对减少化肥使用或维护沼地等行动提供财政激励。

Defra figures show that the phasing out of the CAP is already affecting farm incomes even though the replacement scheme is still sketchy.

环境、食品和农村事务部的数据显示,共同农业政策的逐步淘汰已经影响到了农业收入,尽管替代方案仍然很粗略。

The progressive phasing out of the CAP has left farmers at least 20% down this year and they will be short by 50% of the previous EU subsidy in 2024 with the remaining money due to be reinvested in farming under the “public money for public goods” policy. By 2028 the practice of subsidising farmers per acre in England will have been eliminated, the government says.

共同农业政策的逐步取消使农民今年至少减少了20%,到2024年,他们将缺少之前欧盟补贴的50%,剩余资金将根据“公共资金用于公共产品”政策重新投资于农业。政府称,到2028年,英国将取消每英亩补贴农民的做法。
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“Farmers in England are now receiving less support, quite significantly less, so that will impact incomes,” says Nick von Westenholz, the director of trade and business strategy at the NFU.

全国农场主联合会贸易和商业战略主管尼克·冯·韦斯顿霍尔兹表示:“英国农民现在得到的支持越来越少,非常少,这将影响他们的收入。”

“Most farmers still don’t know what it is that they’ll be signing up to in future years, or what they’ll have to do to meet the requirements of any new scheme,” he adds.

他补充说:“大多数农民仍然不知道他们在未来几年将签署什么协议,或者他们必须做些什么才能满足任何新计划的要求。”

Under the plan in England, direct payments will be phased out completely by 2028. In its places, under ELMs, is a countryside stewardship scheme and the sustainable farming incentive (SFI) scheme.

根据英国的计划,直接支付将在2028年完全取消。在环境土地管理计划之下,有一个农村管理计划和可持续农业激励计划。

Defra says about 32,000 farmers have already signed up to the countryside stewardship scheme, up 90% since Brexit was signed off in 2020.

环境、食品和农村事务部表示,约有3.2万名农民签署了农村管理计划,比2020年英国脱欧签署后增加了90%。

The SFI scheme is still being piloted with new details to be announced in January.

可持续农业激励计划仍在试点阶段,新的细节将于2023年1月公布。
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Farmers have expressed concern that the administration and resource needed to participate in the scheme reduce its attractiveness.

农民们已经表达了参与该计划所需的管理和资源会降低其吸引力的担忧。

“If the payments don’t make business sense, you will find farmers won’t sign up to the scheme,” says Von Westenholz.

“如果支付没有商业意义,你会发现农民不会签署该计划,”冯·韦斯滕霍尔茨说。

For the NFU, which was vocal about the need to maintain trade and animal welfare standards, Brexit is still causing uncertainty for farm businesses six years after the referendum.

英国全国农场主联合会曾直言需要维持贸易和动物福利标准,但在公投六年后,英国脱欧仍在给农业企业带来不确定性。

“Brexit was always going to lead to considerable change for farm businesses in the UK, with the end of free movement of labour and the CAP and a restructuring of our trading relationship with the EU and the rest of the world. But more than six years on from the referendum there is still massive uncertainty as to what that change actually looks like,” says Von Westenholz.

“脱欧总是会给英国的农业企业带来巨大的变化,劳动力自由流动和共同农业政策的结束,以及我们与欧盟和世界其他地区贸易关系的重组。但是公投已经过去6年多了,这种改变到底是什么样子,仍然存在很大的不确定性。”

And while trade deals with big agricultural exporterssuch as Australia and New Zealand have been struck, thus increasing competition in the domestic market, “associated plans for increasing our exports and improving competitiveness appear to still be in the development phase”, he says, “while at the same time trade in agricultural products with our nearest neighbours in Europe has reduced dramatically”.

他表示,尽管与澳大利亚和新西兰等大型农产品出口国达成了贸易协议,从而加剧了国内市场的竞争,但“增加我们出口和提高竞争力的相关计划似乎仍处于发展阶段,而与此同时,与我们最近的欧洲邻国的农产品贸易已大幅减少”。

“None of this is inevitable, but it does need political will, compromise and long-term planning to resolve,” says Von Westenholz.

“这些都不是不可避免的,但确实需要政治意愿、妥协和长期规划来解决,” 冯·韦斯滕霍尔茨说。

Regarding claims that British farming was being put at risk by trade deals, a Defra spokesperson said the “interests of our farmers and food producers is a priority of our trade policy and our trade deals are delivering on this. Our negotiations will continue to support farmers.”

关于贸易协议将英国农业置于风险之中的说法,环境、食品和农村事务部发言人表示:“我们的农民和食品生产商的利益是我们贸易政策的优先事项,我们的贸易协议正在实现这一点。我们的谈判将继续支持农民。”

In December, the environment secretary, Thérèsa Coffey, promised that the next batch of SFI payments, to be unveiled in the new year, would be easier and more beneficial to farmers.

去年12月,英国环境大臣特蕾莎科·菲承诺,将于明年公布的下一批可持续农业激励计划补贴将对农民更容易、更有利。

She pledged to have the “full range” of replacement supports in place by 2024, which would work whether “you are a commoner, upland farmer, or small family farm”.

她承诺,到2024年,将提供“全方位”的替代支持,无论“你是平民、山地农民还是小型家庭农场”,都将发挥作用。