EU Referendum week: Farming sector's main arguments for remaining and leaving the EU

Which way will you vote?
Which way will you vote?

It's EU referendum week, with voting to begin on Thursday the 23rd of June.

It can be hard to keep up with the main agricultural arguments for and against a Brexit scenario.

With opinion split down the middle, many farmers are vocal about this debate - with organised debates happening throughout the country at country shows, union meetings and public events.

To help ease your minds and make a clear choice on the voting day, below is a helpful round-up summary of who wants to leave the EU, who wants to remain in it and their main arguments and reasoning behind their choice.

The case for: Remain

Prime Minister David Cameron: Mr Cameron warns farmers that leaving the EU “would be a leap in the dark”.

The prime minister warned that a UK exit from the EU “would call into serious question jobs and investment in the rural economy”.

He said: "The International Monetary Fund warned that Britain leaving the EU would pose major risks for our economy.

"Respected organisations like the London School of Economics have in recent weeks shown that being outside the EU would reduce the size of the UK economy and seriously hit economic growth.

"This would inevitably mean less public money spend and any future government would have to make its own decisions on what level of farm support it could afford."

Mr Cameron said staying in the EU would guarantee farmers could continue to sell their products without quotas and tariffs to a market of 500 million people.

National Farmers Union: Farmers’ interests are best served by the UK remaining in the European Union, their union has concluded.

The National Farmers’ Union, which represents farmers across England and Wales, said it would not be actively campaigning in the EU referendum and would not tell its 55,000 members how to vote.

But a resolution passed by the NFU council said: “On the balance of existing evidence available to us at present, the interests of farmers are best served by our continuing membership of the European Union.”

The decision comes after the NFU commissioned a report on the impacts of Brexit on farming.

National Farmers Union Scotland: Andrew McCornick, NFU Scotland Vice President commented: "Put simply, the interests of agriculture in Europe are clear – farmers would prefer to farm without the financial support they receive from the EU, but the reality is that most farms don’t make enough from the market for this to be possible.

"A further issue is access to the European single market, which allows tariff-free trade amongst all member states.

"The EU’s negotiating position has also allowed trade agreements to be opened with some 50 international partners in recent years.

"This is of great importance to Scotland’s food and drink industry, which continues to exceed targets and had an export value of £5.1 billion in 2014."

National Farmers Union Cymru: NFU Cymru’s governing body has concluded on the basis of the current available evidence, that the interests of Welsh agriculture are best served by the UK remaining within the European Union.

This policy decision was taken by NFU Cymru Council at a meeting held in conjunction with the Union’s commodity boards and Next Generation Policy Group.

NFU Cymru stated: "Access to European markets is absolutely vital to the Welsh food and drink industry and the risk of this access being denied, or granted on less favourable terms as a result of leaving the EU is too great"

Environment Secretary Elizabeth Truss: "Farmers benefit from having the world’s largest single market of half a billion customers on their doorstep, buying 93 per cent of our beef exports.

"This European market is vital not just for farmers, but for the county’s huge food manufacturing sector, which creates even more local jobs.

"Leaving the EU is a leap in the dark which would put these jobs at risk and threaten the livelihoods of the region’s 60,000-plus agricultural workers.

"Farmers across the UK, are safer, stronger and better off as part of a reformed EU."

Farmers' Union of Wales: FUW says it will "continue to work with the campaign Board in Wales to ensure that Britain remains a member of the European Union."

"The Union sees this as the optimal way to protect our rural economies, especially when it comes to support from the Common Agricultural Policy, which flows to farms and then inevitably to many local businesses," said Union Managing Director Alan Davies.

British exit from the European Union must bring a reversal of policies from the main parties to prevent a decimation of Welsh agriculture, Farmers' Union of Wales President Glyn Roberts said.

Roberts said Brexit could leave rural areas in Wales facing levels of poverty not seen since the 1930s.

"I make no apology for having repeatedly highlighted the Union’s policy that we should remain within the EU," said the FUW President.

Ladies in Beef: "There have been claims from some Brexit MPs that UK food prices could fall by up to 17% if the Common Agricultural Policy was scrapped.

"Spending on food as a share of total income has already fallen substantially through aggressive discounting between supermarkets.

"An unsupported farming industry would be a disaster for consumers, producers, food processors and manufacturers alike, with already squeezed farm gate prices plummeting in the struggle to compete with increased volumes of cheap imported food, produced to lower standards of product safety and animal welfare.

"This will have a huge long term impact on our glorious landscape, tourism and hospitality sectors as the farming industry becomes utterly unsustainable."

The case for: Brexit

Boris Johnson: On the other side of the debate, Boris Johnson has complained about the burden of EU regulations that protect consumers from sheep disease similar to BSE entering the human food chain.

The former mayor of London told farmers he questioned the need for rules that mean spinal tissue has to be removed from sheep with more than two big teeth, as he promised Brexit would bring about deregulation of the farming industry.

Speaking at a cattle market in Clitheroe, Lancashire, he said farmers would get the same amount of money from subsidies after leaving the EU while being relieved of red tape.

"We want to lift the burden from UK farming. I’ve just been talking to people about the rule that says if your sheep has two teeth or more than two big teeth you’ve got to slaughter it in a certain way to remove the spinal tissue. What is the point of that? It’s way out of date.

"You don’t need it. But because it comes from Brussels, we cannot change it and we cannot reform it.”

Farming minister George Eustice: Defra minister George Eustice has been a vocal supporter of a Brexit scenario.

He said the UK government will give more to farmers than they do now in the event of Britain leaving the EU.

Eustice has drawn attention to non-EU nations like Switzerland and Norway and how their governments give more to farmers than the UK does.

"Where power has been ceded to the EU, we see inertia, inconsistency and indecision," the Farm minister said.

"The achievements we cherish most of all are those where we have secured opt-outs from EU initiatives."

Eustice said the UK gives money to the EU, which they convert into foreign currency creating unnecessary exchange rate risks.

Former Defra minister Owen Paterson: Farmers in the UK would benefit leaving the European Union, according to former Defra minister Owen Paterson, as they would be free from EU directives and subsidy policies.

Paterson said money could be better used in a targeted and efficient manner.

"I believe that the United Kingdom has a great future beyond the political arrangements of the European Union," Paterson said at the Oxford Farming Conference.

"Agriculture and food production is hampered by our membership of the Common Agricultural Policy.

"CAP negotiations between 28 countries inevitably mean that we have to accept compromises, these are at best deeply unsatisfactory and at worst actively damaging to UK farmers."

JCB Chairman Lord Bamford: Chairman of JCB Lord Bamford has written to his company's 6,500 UK employees to explain why he favours a Brexit scenario.

In the letter he said he was "very confident that we can stand on our own two feet".

He also said that more than 53% of all UK exports go to non-EU nations, warning that the EU has a shrinking share of world trade.

The businessman says he supported joining the Common Market but did not back it turning into a political union.

Lord Bamford told his employees that the referendum's outcome "will determine the future of our country" with a "lasting impact on the lives of our children and grandchildren".

"CAP negotiations between 28 countries inevitably mean that we have to accept compromises, these are at best deeply unsatisfactory and at worst actively damaging to UK farmers."

Welsh Conservatives leader Andrew Davies: Mr Davies has claimed a Leave vote would be 'transformational' for Welsh agriculture.

Support packages for farmers would be tailor-made for the industry in Wales, which would benefit from new, fresh thinking, he said.

He added: "The established unions may have taken a position against leaving, but they were very strong advocates of Euro.

"As much as they don’t like to be reminded of it, they were wrong then and they’re wrong now."

On the fence

CLA: The landowners organisation said: "It will be for CLA members to decide how they choose to vote in the referendum.

"The CLA will be helping them to make their decision by talking to leaders in the Leave and Remain campaigns throughout the referendum period and pressing them to be as clear on what they see as the implications of their position for landowners, farmers and other rural businesses.

"On the core issues of trade, the CAP, regulation and labour market, rural businesses have big questions for both sides and the CLA will be asking them so that members are fully informed before they enter the polling station."

Crop Protection Association: The CPA has said that whether the UK decides to stay in or out of the EU, consumers would benefit from a regulatory system that better supports farmers to grow an adequate supply of safe and affordable food.

The referendum on Britain's membership of the European Union cuts to the very heart of a wider debate over Government support for British farming and a science-led regulatory system, agreed an expert panel at the CPA annual convention on 12 May 2016.

"Those asking us to leave the European Union must set out how in practice they would build a regulatory system that incentivises farming innovation whilst maintaining close ties with one of our most important export markets.

"Similarly those campaigning to remain must set out how a vote to stay will translate into an appetite for reform."