Farmers in a convoy of tractors drove past the British Parliament on Monday, protesting post-Brexit trade deals that have led to what they say are substandard food imports and unfair trade practices.
Since leaving the European Union in 2020, the United Kingdom has signed several trade deals that British farmers say lack import controls and are allowing poorer quality food to reach Britain from countries with less strict regulations.
British farmers argue that cheaper agricultural imports undermine British domestic production.
They also say they are suffering from rising costs and a shortage of seasonal workers, many of whom are foreign and whose recruitment is more difficult since Brexit because UK agriculture is no longer protected by the EU free trade zone and the block agricultural rules.
Many British farmers backed Brexit out of opposition to the EU’s much-criticized Common Agricultural Policy. But now many say post-Brexit trade deals between the UK and countries such as Australia and New Zealand have opened the door to cheap imports.
Organizers also criticize labeling that allows products to carry the Union Jack when they have not been grown or harvested in Britain.
The UK has also delayed import checks that were supposed to begin after the country’s final break with the EU in late 2020, a move farmers say threatens biosecurity.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak pledged to support UK farmers when he told the National Agricultural Union conference last month that the country’s food security was a vital part of our national security.
About 100 tractors from across the UK converged on Westminster, with horns blaring and farmers displaying slogans such as “Support British farmers” and “Brexit is a disaster”.
Protesters also say the policy in England of paying farmers to create habitats for environmental reasons was taking land away from food production.
Liz Webster, a livestock and crop farmer from the west of England and organizer of the group Save British Farming, said the government had completely betrayed us all.
“We’ve had enough,” she told AFP, denouncing “substandard” imports that “undermine” British products.
Polls show that the public supports British farming and food and wants to maintain our high food standards and support local producers,” he said. “We need a radical policy change and an urgent exit from these terrible trade deals that will decimate food British.
British agriculture provides around 60% of the food consumed in the UK, but farmers fear this proportion is falling.
In recent months, several demonstrations against the post-Brexit agricultural policy of the Conservative government, in power for 14 years, have occurred sporadically.
Some of the information contained in this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.