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Environment key to CAP reform says CLA policy chiefCLA policy director Professor Allan Buckwell has told farmers and landowners in the South East that payments under CAP are best defended by linking food security with environmental security. Buckwell addressed audiences across the South East region, during a CAP Reform Roadshow sponsored by Strutt & Parker. "Farming is strongly dependent on public payments, and these payments are under threat," he said. "Our response is to explain to the public that if they want farmers to deliver both food for which the market pays, and public environmental goods for which the market will not pay, then they may have to do more to arrange payment for the public goods. But of course without a competitive and viable farming industry we'll get neither the food nor the environment we want." The CAP Reform Roadshow in the South East follows the launch by the European partners of the CLA and RSPB of their joint vision for the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). In this joint policy paper, both organizations call for an environmentally friendly future for the CAP. They say food security and environmental challenges can only be met by European policy with commensurate budget resources - and that this is the task for a reformed CAP. The land managers and conservationists also agree that this implies future greater emphasis on delivering environmental services in secure remunerative, say five year, contracts. "We realise that farmers first and foremost produce food, but food production relies on the environment, and there are environmental factors which will put the future of agriculture into question," said Buckwell. "We must still argue the case for food security, but not for income support, as this invites payment capping. We need to continue to promote the need for a stronger CAP to European opinion formers by making the case that food and environmental security are inextricably linked. "The CLA is clear, for three years now we have been advocating food and environmental security – that is both, but food first. Our strategy, particularly in trying to convince European Policy makers, is to see if there is common ground with other interested groups in society. Hence we assisted our partners in the European Landowners Organisation (ELO) to produce a paper with Bird Life International (RSPB). Regarding the method for payments to be distributed, Buckwell said: "These public goods can be delivered through Pillar 1 or 2, but there would be far less bureaucracy if they were arranged in Pillar 1 through multi-year contracts (as we currently use in Pillar 2) – in other words using the best features of both pillars. We are suggesting that the farmer's role is steadily growing – producing both food and environmental services, but they are not charities so services not rewarded by the market must be paid for some other way." |
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