RASE initial comment on Mid Term Review of CAP

The deal reached by EU farm ministers in Luxembourg today is an historic moment in UK and European agriculture. Whether history will judge it as a moment of triumph or disaster for UK farmers , the wider rural economy and the countryside depends on the details of implementation.

No one can argue that saying goodbye to the trade distorting, old production subsidies of the CAP is anything but a good thing. EU farm commissioner Franz Fischler is right to say so . He is also right to assert that the farm subsidy ball is now firmly in the court of other countries such as the US whose agricultural policies are becoming increasingly trade distorting. "Unilateral disarmament is not on," says Mr Fischler.

Nearer home though the UK Government must guard against an over eager adoption of these reforms whilst other EU partners such as France adopt a more lax approach. Farmers will embrace change if it is seen to be applied equitably. There is a danger now that as the Common Agricultural Policy is increasingly repatriated (devolved) to member states it becomes fragmented and uncoordinated, in other words not " Common".

We should be proud of much of the UK's large scale, efficient and cutting edge agriculture and guard against confusing agricultural and rural policies with social policy.