How Brexit could help fix Britain’s broken food policy

Brexit could give us the chance to make changes that could cut food prices while simultaneously creating new jobs, says Matthew Partridge.

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Brussels pays large subsidies to sugar beet farmers.

Whether you want a hard or soft Brexit, or even a second referendum, it's hard to disagree that the EU's agricultural policy is a mess that needs drastic reform. Gerald Mason, vice-president of Tate & Lyle Sugars, thinks Brexit will give us the chance to make changes that could cut prices while simultaneously creating new jobs. Tate and Lyle was set up in the 1870s and is now owned by US sugar group ASR. It is one of Britain's two major sugar refiners, with two factories in the UK. It employs around 850 people, including engineers and scientists.

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Dr Matthew Partridge
Shares editor, MoneyWeek

Matthew graduated from the University of Durham in 2004; he then gained an MSc, followed by a PhD at the London School of Economics.

He has previously written for a wide range of publications, including the Guardian and the Economist, and also helped to run a newsletter on terrorism. He has spent time at Lehman Brothers, Citigroup and the consultancy Lombard Street Research.

Matthew is the author of Superinvestors: Lessons from the greatest investors in history, published by Harriman House, which has been translated into several languages. His second book, Investing Explained: The Accessible Guide to Building an Investment Portfolio, is published by Kogan Page.

As senior writer, he writes the shares and politics & economics pages, as well as weekly Blowing It and Great Frauds in History columns He also writes a fortnightly reviews page and trading tips, as well as regular cover stories and multi-page investment focus features.

Follow Matthew on Twitter: @DrMatthewPartri