CAP Reform Poll

[james armstrong]

REFORMING COMMON AGRICULTURAL POLICY PAYMENTS OF e 53BILLION p.a.


 

In 2010 the Agricultural Commission of EU invited responses from
 taxpayers and stakeholders and "Think
Tanks” 

To the proposed reform of the CAP system of subsidies to
agriculture.

 

HERE’S MY SUBMISSION   Taking into account the stated aims of the regime, to -,

  - safeguard food
production, 

-  care for the
environment, 

-  encourage good
farming practice

 - (adding a
consideration for the debt crisis which has lately developed .)   

1 Reduce the present and future cost of the CAP regime from (EU,)e53bn
,(UK) £3.2bn to a target of  e25bn  (UK)£ 1.5bn , progressively by  a  10%
reduction each year.   The justification
is the recent cuts in essential services such as health care, education, social care .
To date CAP has been immune from such cuts. The other justification is that CAP
rewards 

bulk landowners and corporate agribusinesses and is not
designed and does not achieve its purpose to help struggling hands-on
farmers.  

 

2 Extend payments to allotment holders and garden vegetable
growers .  This helps safeguard food
production, and widens democratic involvement in  European schemes  which is both equitable and gives an
incentive  to all to make a valuable
additional

contribution to food production.

 

3  Extend CAP payments
to householders who put up nest boxes and feed birds and leave unkept borders for hedgehogs, in gardens (farmers who do
so presently qualify for cap payments. ) 
 This will broaden the franchise
and improve the equity of CAP payments . 
One million RSPB members, the Butterfly Trust etc  are presently subsidized by CAP cheques of
£3million p.a. to these organizations. 
Householders especially the 500,000 who took part in the BBC spring/autumn
 garden bird surveys will have their
environmental concern recognized by significant CAP payments . 

 

4 Confine payments to individual claimants  excluding claims by corporations. 

Corporate claimants are outwith the scope of  the Treaty of Rome definition of
disadvantaged ‘workers in agriculture.’

      

5 Refocus CAP to make payments  progressive, rewarding smaller producers
effectively and excluding agribusinesses and wealthy landowners .

 

BUT ITS TOO LATE 

You,  like me and 500
million others in EU states were  not
made aware that the consultation was taking place in spite of “Taxpayers ,stakeholders
and Think Tanks” being targeted.  The
consultation closed on 31 July 2010
without most (any?)taxpayers          
knowing!

Its not surprising that of the 500 million population of EU
and the 5million receivers of 

CAP payments in Europe , to the
consultation only a staggeringly low  –

  5,500 responses , were received in 2010 by the Commission for the whole
E.U. 

Most of the 5,500 would be from informed interest national  groups such as CLBA, NFU and CPRE  And stakeholders (read CAP recipients such as
British Sugar plc receiving an £83 million cheque in 2009. )

On such a response, the Commission proposes to formulate the
priciples to reform the e53bn annual CAP budget.

 

For comparison, when a UK
marketing or manufacturing company is monitoring the success of a national brand,
a consumer survey would be commissioned from such as Mory Poll or Nielsen Market
Research Co.,  consulting 2,500 households
in UK. 

Two such polls every year are typically required to monitor consumer
reaction to an established brand. And this in each country.

 When a major
rebranding is contemplated the number of polls would be increased and such
surveys would be conducted in each country. 

 

The equivalent consultation base for CAP in 25 E.U. countries
would require some 100-200,000 responses , and this repeated regularly. 

 

PROPOSED ACTION

I will prepare a daft questionnaire.  Volunteer pollsters in different regions will use
the occasion of  upcoming festivals,
Tolpuddle, Scythe festival, County shows etc ,   and poll another 5,500 people asking them
about knowledge of EU CAP regime, 
whether they knew about it , took part in  the 2010 consultation, “ Do they know that the
following (list)  receive large CAP
cheques?” Do they agree to the following reforms of CAP?” 

 

WE WILL THEN SEND THE RESULTS TO THE PRESS, TO EU AGRICULTURE
 COMMISSION , TO UK
AGRICULTURE MINISTER ETC AND TO UNIONS AND SERVICE PROVIDERS FACING CUTS.AND
GET SOME  PUBLICITY FOR THE SECRET
CAP.PAYMENTS                     James 

 

    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 		 	   		  
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