Untangling animal-based production narratives: a review of UK's post-Brexit policy landscape

The article aimed to elucidate the United Kingdom government's proposed direction for the "Public Money for Public Goods" approach and future implications for livestock systems post-Brexit by identifying the overall coherence between post-Brexit livestock policies.

A systematic policy review of post-Brexit livestock policies on gov.uk was undertaken. Of 505 policy documents initially identified, 44 were included in the final review after removing duplicates and applying exclusion criteria. A policy document analysis was conducted to iteratively build an a priori list of thematic categories discussing livestock and post-Brexit changes. Policy Narratives were produced, supporting these data with grey and academic literature.

UK livestock policy overlooks the diverse needs of different farming systems. Public goods definitions related to livestock systems remain ill-defined. Policies often conflict and lack ambition for a comprehensive public goods transition.

The rapid pace at which government policy evolves imposed difficulty in reviewing new or updated policies. Also, policy terminology varied between documents, including an inherent vagueness of language. Both factors required substantial interpretation, potentially introducing bias.

Failure to address the gaps identified across policies will lead to uneven social, economic and environmental outcomes for the animal-based farming sectors.

Agricultural policy design needs to incorporate a critical food systems approach to ensure post-Brexit livestock policies and the public goods transition support different scales and types of farming businesses.