It says a lot that a 10.7% inflation rate, as published this week, is seen as progress.

It might be a marginal drop from 11%-plus last month, but it is still a destructive rate that will hurt consumers and business confidence. This easing reflected a drop in fuel prices, with diesel back to what will probably be a new norm.

The overall inflation rate is, however, still at a 40-year high, with the big drivers now heating costs and food.

But, the factors driving agflation on farms across the UK and Europe have not changed. Fertiliser costs remain an issue, with no signs of an early easing of cost or supply problems; labour is costly and hard to get thanks to the government's block on free movement as part of its Brexit approach; farms are also being hurt by the same cost pressures on heat and power as every other business and it is getting no easier to pass higher costs up the supply chain.

The same applies to processors and retailers, meaning food price inflation is here to stay. It will ease as overall inflation eases, but after years of being too low, food prices will, hopefully, move onto a more realistic plateau. This is an unpopular view with consumers, but farmers cannot go back to producing food far below the cost of production.

In the EU, its sights are set on farming and food markets in 2032, according to the content of the European Commission's annual Agricultural Outlook report. Any economist will confirm that in the present troubled times, a forecast of one year is difficult, let alone 10, but to be fair to Brussels its forecasters have a reasonable track record for identifying trends in farming.

This time they are painting a picture of a greener, potentially less productive, agricultural industry. That Brussels' belief in green outcomes is another challenge to the accuracy of longer term figures.

It also underlines how the UK could use Brexit to go in a different, more global, direction but that will continue to fall on deaf ears in Westminster. Farmers here are in line for similar policies, but without the EU's funding and solidarity. That is, by any standards, another betrayal of Brexit promises.

The EU report acknowledged that 2022 had been a year of rising costs and extreme weather events combining to put pressure on agriculture. However, it insisted EU farming was resilient and capable of delivering the food consumers need in Europe, with a cereal surplus for export.

Read more: The crisis we face is entirely home-grown

It added that the new CAP had delivered to member states the tools they needed to protect the family farm-based European agricultural model. This remained under threat because of the age profile in agriculture, despite all efforts via the CAP to get younger people into the industry.

Across the commodities, the report painted a familiar picture. The area of cereals in the EU would fall marginally, with the EU remaining a net exporter of wheat and barley and a net importer of maize and rice. It will become less reliant on imports of protein and oilseeds as European production grows.

This might be more in hope than expectation, but it fits with green thinking in Brussels. The comments on cereal demand confirmed the pressure the livestock industry from a shift towards green thinking.

The report suggested cereal demand will remain the same, but that the balance between production for food and for feed will change to reflect lower demand from the livestock sector.

The 10 years ahead view for the livestock sector looked far from promising. A new environmentally driven approach will impact the dairy sector, as the report forecasted a move towards less intensive production methods, with a decline in dairy herds and milk production.

It said the dairy market in Europe is 'mature' with growth limited to cheese, while on the export front, the EU would find it more difficult, with its extensive farming methods, to compete in milk powder markets.

On beef, the message was even less palatable. The forecast is for demand to be driven by sustainability concerns, with a greater focus on organic and extensive systems.

This would produce a big drop in demand for red meat, while pigmeat would lose out to price competition from poultry – the only meat sector with a positive growth forecast. This underlined yet again that Brexit could be an opportunity for the UK to be more global and less green – but the odds on that happening are as distant as an early resolution of inflation.