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Agriculture has a hugely important role to play in meeting many of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Ensuring the economic resilience of farms and improving their capacity to respond to a wide range of challenges is key if agriculture is to contribute positively to achieving SDGs and sustainable growth. This paper aims to calculate the economic vulnerability and resilience of agriculture in England and Wales (UK), by analysing individual farm business data and using it to compute an aggregated agricultural resilience index at regional level across the two countries. The results of our analysis are visualised as maps, showing the geographical distribution of the input indicators and the final composite resilience index. We argue that this type of spatio-economic approach is useful for understanding the geography of agricultural resilience at sub-national levels, which could be valuable for helping to inform decisions and formulate strategies for promoting sustainable agriculture.. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

UK farmers are facing significant uncertainty due to recent post-Brexit policy changes. Upland farmers in England are particularly at risk, due to their high dependence on European subsidy support payments. Farm entrepreneurship strategies may be a viable solution for these farmers to achieve economic sustainability while continuing to make valuable social and environmental contributions via multifunctional enterprises. However, many socio-economic constraints often prevent farmers from implementing these strategies. This paper builds upon existing research on 'constrained entrepreneurship in UK agriculture' by examining the Constrained Institutional Contexts that upland farmers operate within. Using a qualitative approach, the paper explores and theorizes how upland farmers are constrained by exogeneous forces which control access to and dependence on resources. The findings highlight the importance of a supportive rural environment for farm entrepreneurship; however, they also reveal that the success of such strategies is often beyond the control of individual farmers and policy support is often necessary to alleviate these constraints. • Constrained entrepreneurship in UK agricultural sector. • Post-Brexit legislative changes. • Weberian Analysis. • Uncertainty in the UK farming sector. •UK Agricultural policy will have a dramatic effect on the UK farm sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces four key groups of actors (armchair rewilders, pioneer farmers, policy entrepreneurs and guerrilla rewilders) whose actions are driving rewilding discourse, practice and policy in England. These groups were identified during a comparative case study of two English rewilding sites (the Avalon Marshes in Somerset and Wild Ennerdale in Cumbria). Research involved 49 interviews: twelve expert interviews, followed by stakeholder and practitioner interviews in the Avalon Marshes (n = eighteen) and Wild Ennerdale (n = nineteen). Armchair rewilders and pioneer farmers shape discourse by advocating for rewilding from idealistic (armchair rewilders) or practical (pioneer farmers) standpoints. Pioneer rewilders and guerrilla rewilders shape practice by conducting rewilding by licit (pioneer farmers) or illicit (guerrilla rewilders) means. Policy entrepreneurs and guerrilla rewilders shape rewilding policy through lobbying (policy entrepreneurs) or direct action (guerrilla rewilders). The ability of these groups to shape rewilding in England relates both to the way that rewilding in still evolving in England, having travelled to the UK from the USA via Europe, and to the opportunity presented by the 'policy window' created as a result of Brexit and the UK's withdrawal from the Common Agricultural Policy. The resulting policy moment offers a chance to shape British agricultural and environmental policy in a way that will have significant implications for rewilding's future in England and the UK. • A unique form of rewilding exists within the English context. • Brexit created a window of opportunity for advancing the rewilding agenda in the UK. • Rewilding practice & policy in England is being shaped by distinct groups of actors. • Participatory communication can reconcile different attitudes with regard to land use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A decline in the availability of opportunities for new entrants to agriculture is a recognised consequence of the agricultural restructuring process. Under the Common Agricultural Policy, various support schemes have attempted to address such concerns, with limited success. A number of these schemes focus on the provision of agricultural property rights for new entrants, but there appears to be limited justification for this. This paper argues the new entrant problem is as much about progression and exit as it is about entry, with such considerations generally not included in support frameworks. To develop this argument, the paper re-engages with the concept of 'real' regulation to examine rural property relationships on agricultural estates held by local authorities and county councils within England and Wales (i.e. the county farms estate). 'Real' regulation influences property-owner behaviour in three-ways: regulation of land occupancy; regulation of landowner behaviour; and, regulation of land use. These three regimes allow property owners to determine management strategies based on economic, social and environmental considerations. The flexibility afforded by 'real' regulation, and in particular, the regulation of land occupancy, and of landowner behaviour, allows property-owners the option to shift focus between these regimes, especially when faced with unfavourable market conditions. Analysis of different estate management strategies (consolidation, partial disinvestment, disinvestment), shows how this severely restricts the provision of property rights to new entrants and progressing tenants, as property-owners look to protect their interests. For these reasons, current new entrant support networks have limited success, irrespective of the political approach driving them. • Current policies aimed at new entrants appear uninformed. • Regimes of regulation guide landowner behaviour, re-distributing property rights. • Tenant farmers are empowered by regulation, restricting industry entry. • Definition required to define and determine needs of new entrants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Brexit, the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union, has offered the UK government a unique opportunity to fundamentally reform agricultural policy. In England, the new policy—called Environmental Land Management—will reward farmers for activities that produce environmental public goods, such as clean air and water and a thriving wildlife, and prevent environmental hazards. It could lead to the biggest changes in land management since the end of World War II. This photo essay and the process of making it contributes to a better understanding of how farmers feel about the changes underway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]