TALKING POINT
TALKING POINT
Lurking in the bushes along the road to CAP reform are 15 European finance ministers. Theyve all got long lists of urgent issues, particularly relating to health and old age, which need every penny they can find. And theyre casting covetous eyes on subsidies for growing most of Europes food. They also know that the enlargement of the European Union will bring large bills for rural support.
When commission president Jacques Santer introduced his Agenda 2000 to the European Parliament in the summer, he made great play of alternative methods of supporting those who work on the land. This raised questions as to why we need to subsidise or compensate the farming of all of our land, including the very best, which is some of the finest in Europe.
Missing was a sufficiently strong emphasis on the needs of areas where support is necessary – particularly in our more remote regions. Here, the spending of taxpayers money could and should realise a greater benefit for the countryside and for our population as a whole. It isnt good enough to talk about "the integration of environmental goals into the CAP."
However, the news wasnt all bad. It was particularly important that the commission president himself introduced the CAP reforms. This meant that the package was supported by the full College of Commissioners. Had the job fallen to farm commissioner Franz Fischler, the debate on progress might have been confined to the Council of Agriculture Ministers.
In that august body, our minister, Jack Cunningham, is ploughing a lonely furrow, in harness with the commissioner and with the ministers from only two or three other countries. Their aim is the right one – to bury outdated policy and to prepare the ground for a rural policy for the 21st century which is relevant to the needs of the sector, of Europe and of the world.
The Agenda 2000 paper emphasises three critical points. First, a further shift away from price support. In future, support should go to people and places rather than through commodity price subsidies. This is important because we now expect rural areas to deliver substantial social, environmental and recreational benefits as well as our food. Second, greater emphasis on food quality and regional diversity in food. There are many examples of diversification into local and specialised food and other products. The potential for delivering such choices is enormous, given the right changes in European policy and funding. Encouraging traditional and niche crops, along with local processing and proper marketing, will be good for the countryside and for rural employment.
Third, bringing environmental goals into the CAP. Most important, the plans, if implemented in full, will ensure vital and sustainable environmental measures are introduced, through targeted agri-environmental schemes and changes to the related structural policies.
Countryside Stewardship, which the Countryside Commission conceived and started, gives farmers grants for conservation management alongside commercial farming. It has proved farmers will deliver environmental goals if the structure is right for them to do so. But hitherto, this and other schemes have had to compete with ridiculously high commodity subsidies.
The real battle for Britains countryside is to convince Europes finance ministers that these policies are valid, urgent and good value for money and must have a sufficient share of the cake alongside the need for more hip operations and for pensions reform.
From this battle ground we must emerge with a living countryside that meets the demands of people and the public purse, while maintaining viable, sustainable rural businesses. Future generations will not thank us if we fail to win this vital battle.
Farming must compete with health and old age issues in the battle for support, says Richard Simmonds
• Richard Simmonds is chairman of the Countryside Commission, and co-author of the Cork Declaration on Rural Development. He trained as a surveyor, farms in Berkshire and has forestry interests in Scotland.