(20 Jun 2016) Rob Warnock is a proud British farmer and the son of a proud British farmer. One day, he hopes to be the father of a proud British farmer, too.
He's also a European Union farmer, but that is not a legacy Warnock wants to pass on to his 6-year-old son.
The 44-year-old plans to vote this week for Britain to leave the EU, even though he knows it will cost his struggling dairy business dear.
Many British farmers feel the same emotional tug. But while their hearts tell them to leave, their heads urge caution. The EU is helping farmers stay afloat at a time when many are struggling.
The benefits of membership in the 28-nation EU may seem intangible to many Britons, who view it as a distant body of Byzantine bureaucracy and obscure regulations.
But farmers know exactly how much they get from the bloc. In Warnock's case it's about 40-thousand pounds (60-thousand US dollars) a year - his share of the subsidy millions of farmers across the continent receive under the EU's Common Agricultural Policy.
"Well I think the EU really holds us back as a nation. Our milk prices, which have been documented, are very low in the UK," he says.
"And I just feel that we can make our own trade deals outside the EU with other countries around the world which I think long term will benefit all the farmers in the country."
He desperately needs things to improve. The price of milk has been plunging for more than two years, hit by what Warnock calls a "perfect storm" of factors, including Russia's ban on EU imports, Chinese stockpiling of powdered milk and production increases in other EU countries.
That is disastrous for Warnock, who tends 450 dairy cows and grows barley and wheat on 650 acres (263 hectares) perched above the English Channel on Britain's south coast.
Warnock's father Jim is not so sure. He intends to vote "remain," worried the subsidies will disappear.
"I know they are saying at the moment if there is a change then we will still get it," he said. "But knowing politicians and knowing the pressure they are going to be under..."
"Leave" campaigners have vowed that the British government will step in to support farmers if the country leaves the EU. The "remain" camp says the pledge is unrealistic: the "leave" side has also promised to boost funding for the health service, maintain defence spending and much more, at a time when the government is committed to cutting public-sector spending.
Farmers have a long list of complaints about the EU, from its complex paperwork to its environmental regulations, which limit which fertilizers and pesticides they can use.
British governments in recent decades have taken a comparatively laissez-faire attitude to agriculture, reluctant to shield domestic producers from international competition.
It's a different story across the Channel in France, where agriculture accounts for a bigger slice of the economy and looms larger in the national consciousness. Militant French farmers regularly stage protests - blocking roads, dumping manure and even herding sheep in the Louvre museum to demand more support from the government.
The National Farmers Union has come out broadly pro-remain, but understands that the community is split.
"Our council met in April, discussed at great length the issues, very good debate, and they came up with the line that basically, on the balance of probabilities as we know it, at the moment farmers are best served to remain within the EU. However individual businesses may differ from that line," says Matt Ware, Head of Government and Parliamentary affairs of the National Farmers Union.
Find out more about AP Archive: [ Ссылка ]
Twitter: [ Ссылка ]
Facebook: [ Ссылка ]
Instagram: [ Ссылка ]
You can license this story through AP Archive: [ Ссылка ]
