Brexit is an opportunity for British farmers – first, though, we must learn from our French counterparts

Earlier this month, France unveiled a national strategy to increase vegetable protein production and Brexit should persuade us to follow suit, writes Marc Coloma

‘There is no logical reason for the UK to be growing so little fruit and vegetables and importing so much when it has the conditions to grow a wide variety of produce’ (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Negotiations over a post-Brexit trade deal have exposed the fragility of the UK’s farming model – particularly that of meat farming and its reliance on EU markets.  

Currently, the UK farming model is one of meat and few veg. While the UK produces much of the meat it consumes (it has 109 per cent self-sufficiency in lamb and 75 per cent self-sufficiency in beef), domestic production of fruit and vegetables is a different story. According to Defra, home production of vegetables accounts for only around 54 per cent of the total UK supply, with most of our imports coming from Spain or the Netherlands.  

As Dave Goulson, a professor of biology at the University of Sussex has suggested, whatever you might think about Brexit, it has the potential to help transform farming and the way the UK produces fruit and vegetables – if the government radically reshaped the industry by redirecting subsidies from meat farming to fresh produce.