Envy is never good. It is unsettling and ultimately frustrating, but when it comes to agriculture we often have cause to envy some decisions for farmers in the EU.

The V word, standing for vision, is increasingly being used in the EU when it comes to farming. This is about having and implementing a vision plan.

This contrasts with the situation here, where since Brexit there has been confusion and no vision about the role of agriculture for rural areas or the wider economy. There is confusion around whether the priority is the environment or producing quality food that creates downstream employment. There are no signs of that being resolved.

Farming is stuck being part of the almost certain to fail net zero policy, and lack of vision is as bad under a Labour government as it was under the Conservatives. There is no vision or imagination and no joined up thinking on creating a policy that combines environmental goals and and net zero thinking with efficient food production and national food security and health. In Europe things are now different. The demand for vision came from the top, in the shape of the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen.

The vision in the EU is for the industry and Brussels to develop 'long term policy pathways to deliver a robust and sustainable livestock sector'

placeholder image — The vision in the EU is for the industry and Brussels to develop 'long term policy pathways to deliver a robust and sustainable livestock sector'

She was stung by the massive farm protests of early 2024. She accepted that rural dissatisfaction was a threat to the whole EU and a driver to attract more support to the far right. She began a process of change to the CAP and pressed for more action to bring fairness to the food supply chain.

When, later in the year, she was reappointed to the post she accelerated moves to a more farmer friendly CAP. She demanded vision strategies from all commissioners and agriculture was front and centre of that process. She secured a young, committed new farm commissioner in Christoph Hansen from Luxembourg, and gave him 100 days to come up with a new vision for agriculture. He has done that and created new vision thinking.

At the heart of those farm policies is how to achieve the elusive concept of generational renewal making sure farming is attractive and profitable for young people. This is being translated into a wider vision to boost society's respect for farmers. The green mist is still there around policies, but it is no longer seen as the primary physical or social output of the industry. At the same time the EU is well aware of the massive economic contribution of agriculture and food. It is a huge export earner for the bloc, with a healthy and enviable positive balance of trade gap between imports and exports. It recognises that food industry jobs are in rural areas where other job opportunities are hard to find.

The threat from Russia and other global events has pushed food security up the EU agenda again, and it is likely to remain there. Inevitably it is always easier to set out a vision than achieve delivery, but the political demand from the Commission now is that there must be a clear path to implementing vision plans.

That remains a challenge, but this week Brussels launched, along with industry stakeholders, a new vision or 'work-stream' for the livestock industry. In the past livestock was frowned on as not in tune with green thinking; meat production was a victim of dietary and social trends while in the dairy sector the efficient were criticised for their impact on the environment.

However in launching this new vision approach Brussels came out with comments we could only dream of hearing from politicians here. They said the livestock sector 'is and always will be an essential part of EU agriculture'.

The vision is for the industry and Brussels to develop 'long term policy pathways to deliver a robust and sustainable livestock sector'. It is always easy to be cynical about words being a lot easier than actions, but now the demand from the top in Brussels is for these vision plans to be measurable and deliverable.

Before we go too far in the envy game it is worth remembering the EU is still struggling to gene editing agreement and is facing criticisms from farmers over plans to merge the pillars of the CAP into a single fund that could potentially reduce protection for direct farm payments.

However we can still look with envy at the political commitment to have a vision of a better, more profitable, less bureaucratic future for farming.