Last year we reported that CCRI researchers Hannah Chiswell, Damian Maye and Mauro Vigani had their paper ‘Present realities’ and the need for a ‘lived experience’ perspective in Brexit agri-food governance‘, published in a special issue of the journal ‘Space and Polity’. It has emerged that due to the extensive interest in the journal, it will be published as a book on July 12th.
The paper written by Damian, Hannah and Mauro discussed the fact that the majority of academic representations of Brexit and agriculture are mostly futures-orientated. This paper argues that Brexit processes are active now, rather than simply in the future, influencing the lives of farming families, farm employees, food chain actors and local communities. It examines how Brexit is being discussed now in two key agricultural sectors, cereals and horticulture, and covers some important ground which to date has been given insufficient prominence in the Brexit process in the field of agriculture. The research for this paper was conducted for the EU H2020 funded SUFISA project, which considered strategies for sustainable agriculture and fisheries.
Regarding the unexpected publication, Research Fellow Hannah Chiswell said “hearing about the special edition being turned into a book was a real surprise, but goes to show just how much interest there is in the subject matter. The multitude of issues surrounding Brexit, many of which remain uncertain, will have significant impacts upon the agri-food sector. But, using the examples of the horticulture and cereal sectors, our paper notes that Brexit is already having an impact.”
‘Present realities’ and the need for a ‘lived experience’ perspective in
Brexit agri-food governance‘ – AbstractBrexit poses a significant challenge to the future governance of the UK agri-food sector. Policy decisions that will be made in the next few years will initiate a major new phase of agrarian change and regulation. We are seeing signs of this already in agri-food policy discourse, including scenarios related to food and farming futures post-Brexit. Academic representations of Brexit and agriculture are also mostly futures-orientated. This is important analysis; however, Brexit processes are active now, rather than simply in the future, influencing the lives of farming families, farm employees, food chain actors and local communities. This paper examines how Brexit is being discussed now in two key agricultural sectors: cereals and horticulture. Regional newspaper articles are used to provide initial insights into the ‘present realities’ of Brexit and agriculture, by which we mean how producers, associated food chain actors and the public are engaging with Brexit now in terms of changes they are making to their livelihoods and expectations about future uncertainty in the present day. We conclude by making recommendations for future research to contextualise every-day, lived experiences of Brexit in agri-food governance.
The book, published by Routledge, can be ordered via thier website, and is published on July 12th, 2019.
