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What’s driving thousands of UK farmers to take to the streets in protest? How are extreme weather patterns and policy changes threatening Britain’s food security?
The UK farmer protests of 2024-2025 highlight a complex web of challenges facing British agriculture. From record-breaking floods and controversial trade agreements to new inheritance tax laws, farmers are fighting to preserve their livelihoods and the nation’s food independence.
Keep reading to discover how these interconnected issues are reshaping British farming and what solutions might help secure its future.
The UK Farmer Protests
UK farmer protests in 2024 and 2025 are showcasing a perfect storm of challenges and concerns experienced by the agricultural sector, including intense competition from supermarkets, pressure from cheaper imported products, reduced post-Brexit subsidies, difficult weather conditions, and tax changes. While the government attempts to respond, many farmers remain uncertain about their future.
The Issues Behind the Farmer Protests
UK farmers are confronting a series of interconnected crises, with severe impacts on their operations and well-being.
Challenging Weather
Between October 2022 and March 2024, England experienced its wettest 18 months on record. Continued adverse weather in early 2024 led to widespread flooding, severely affecting crop production and livestock farming. Production of wheat, barley, and oats is expected to be 21% below average production levels recorded from 2015 to 2023. Further complicating this dire situation, outdated storm overflows are increasingly releasing sewage into natural waterways during heavy rains, contaminating fields and posing health risks to crops and farmers.
Heavy rains coupled with unusually low temperatures this spring have harmed UK livestock, preventing grazing and depleting feed reserves. Some animals have fallen ill from waterborne diseases; others have died.
Economic Strain
Farmers face escalating financial burdens from declining yields, rising expenses, and costly Brexit-induced labor shortages. In addition, market trends are causing the prices farmers receive for their goods to drop or stagnate. Moreover, some fear that post-Brexit agricultural policies and trade agreements with countries such as Australia and New Zealand could lead to an influx of inexpensive imports that further undercut local producers.
Food Security and Trade
UK farmers are grappling with problems worsened by recent policy changes and trade agreements. Farmers are protesting post-Brexit rules and trade deals they say threaten their livelihoods and the nation’s food security. Concerns they highlighted include:
- Unfair trade agreements that permit the import of cheaper food produced under standards illegal in the UK—hampering British farmers’ ability to compete fairly.
- Misleading labeling practices that permit imported products to carry a Union flag, falsely suggesting they’re produced in Britain—misleading consumers and further undermining British agriculture.
The farmers argue that these policies threaten national food security—a problem exacerbated by ongoing climate-related severe weather events, which experts say will will reduce UK food production capacity by 8% this year.
Consequently, the UK faces greater dependence on imported wheat and potential food price hikes. With extreme weather already adding £361 ($386 USD) to the average UK food bill over the past two years, concerns about food self-sufficiency are mounting. Experts warn that the country’s increased reliance on imported goods could leave it vulnerable to global supply chain fluctuations.
Tax Changes
In October 2024, the British government announced plans to eliminate agricultural inheritance tax exemptions starting April 2026. The new “tractor tax” will impose a 20% tax on farm inheritances valued over £1 million, with married couples eligible for exemptions up to £3 million. This marks a significant shift from the previous tax-free inheritance system.
Farmers argue the inheritance tax changes could:
- Force the sale of family farms
- Threaten British food security
- Worsen the sector’s existing cash flow crisis
The Psychological Toll
These persistent challenges are causing significant stress and fueling mental health issues within the farming community: Each week, three people in the sector take their own lives, with male farm workers three times more likely than the average UK male to die by suicide.
What’s Next
As extreme weather events become more frequent, UK farmers are demanding robust government support to help them adapt and recover. In response to these pressures, the government has taken the following steps:
- Launched a Farm Recovery Fund in April 2024 to aid flood-affected farmers. However, some criticize the initiative as lacking the comprehensive, sustained support needed to support farmers’ resilience.
- Implemented “green schemes” to enhance agricultural sustainability, such as paying farmers to plant legumes such as clover and vetch, with the goal of improving soil quality and providing food for pollinators.
- Introduced the “New Deal” in January 2025, which is a comprehensive support package:
- Requirement for 50% of public sector food to be sourced locally or meet high environmental standards
- Reduced planning restrictions
- Support for on-site energy production
- Business diversification assistance
Farmers have also taken action in several ways:
- Launching a campaign spotlighting last year’s difficult harvest, urging future policymakers to boost domestic agriculture and enhance environmental safeguards.
- Calling for a universal basic income to provide financial security, enabling them to reinvest in sustainable improvements and better navigation of economic uncertainties.
- Exploring innovative, climate-related coping strategies such as converting farmland into floodwater storage areas that could double as nature reserves.
These approaches underscore the critical challenges UK agriculture faces: balancing immediate recovery, long-term resilience, and national food security amid worsening climate change and shifting policies.

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