Will Brexit Impact on the Social Contributions Made by Agriculture?

Abstract

There is some concern in the UK policy community that Brexit may damage the contribution that the farming industry makes to social networks, social capacity, community resilience and other aspects of social and cultural capital in rural areas. There is a perception that the impact may be particularly significant in the more remote and least densely populated parts of the UK, such as rural Wales. There the agricultural system, especially extensive sheep farming, coupled with land tenure laws and local inheritance norms that kept family farms small, created a need to co-operate and share labour. This tradition appears to have had an enduring influence on the character of Welsh rural society. However, a lack of hard evidence could result in possible under- or over-estimates of the importance of agriculture's social contributions to rural communities and thus lead to inappropriate policy responses – over- or under-reacting – to mitigating any likely damage from Brexit. The Welsh Government commissioned a study to examine the available evidence and to propose ways of filling gaps. This article discusses the issues involved in identifying and evaluating evidence of agriculture's social contributions and the proposals for further research, with specific reference to Wales, against the backdrop of Brexit.