The “unfrozen moment” Michael Gove, the new Defra secretary, called the impact of Brexit on agriculture and the environment in his first speech last week. It’s a deft description of the potential for transformation that leaving the EU offers, which is undoubtedly what Mr Gove intended. Stripped of the costly common agriculture policy, the argument went, and able to import from around the world, the price of food in the shops would plummet. And he accepts that farming, like every other business with a close EU connection, cannot be driven over the cliff edge of a hard Brexit. Further – as Mr Gove now knows – nearly four-fifths of the lamb grown in the UK goes to Europe, so these changes might kick-start the rewilding of Britain’s uplands.

Source: The Guardian July 23, 2017 17:26 UTC