Michael Gove realism over Brexit and farming – The Yorkshire Post says

Unlike the leading Brexiteers who think this is a straightforward process, Mr Gove has, for the past two years, been running a Whitehall department whose preparatory work is fundamental to the future of farming and wider food industry.

If a Brexiteer campaigner like Mr Gove, one of the frontrunners for the Tory leadership, believes that Britain may need more time before leaving the EU in an orderly manner, he should be listened to respectfully by his opponents.

As his deputy Robert Goodwill, the Farming Minister and Scarborough MP, has discovered on his fruitful tours of the country following his relatively recent appointment, there appears to be little appetite amongst agricultural workers and businesses 
for a no-deal Brexit.

However, as some of Mr Gove’s main rivals continue to make Brexit promises and assumptions that will be almost impossible to honour, they would be advised to remember that Britain’s farming industry provides over half of the food the UK eats, employs 474,000 people and comprises 217,000 farms.

And if the maximum environmental benefits are to be accrued, it will be preferable – as the NAO says – to take time, and get the basic details and principles, right now rather than risk putting the entire industry in jeopardy. And that means building a consensus with farmers rather than taking them for granted.