5 January 2011 | Marianna Keen

 

The UK environment secretary, Caroline Spelman today (5th January 2011) called for essential reform of the European system of subsidies for farmers.

Spelman declared that landowners who take steps to protect the environment and enhance the countryside should get more rewards. She told delegates at the conference that in future, subsidies should be linked less to food production and instead reward farmers for delivering benefits such as improving wildlife habitats and biodiversity.

Spelman expressed that there should be less reliance from Britain's farmers on direct payments.

Addressing the three day Oxford Farming Conference, which began yesterday, Spelman also told farmers that rising global food demand, and increases in food prices, make it possible to reduce subsidies and plan their abolition.

She told the audience of farmers that the policy, costing billions of pounds a year, distorted trade and must change.

The subsidy system has kept food prices high, causing high tariffs that block cheap imports. Use of subsidies to export surplus food from the EU also damages production in developing countries.

This distortion of trade caused by common agricultural policy is "morally wrong", said Spelman. The Cap, which governs subsidies across the EU, is to be reviewed with a new, more ambitious plan put in place by 2014, said the environment secretary.

Spelman said: "We need to make the new Cap fundamentally different. It must be about the new challenges of achieving global food security and tackling and adapting to a changing climate. Now is the time to make very significant progress towards reducing our reliance on direct payments. Rising global demand for food and rising food prices make it possible to reduce subsidies and plan for their abolition.

"Furthermore, we should encourage innovation in the industry, and provide help with environmental measures and combating climate change. Our taxpayers have every right to expect other public goods for the subsidies they pay."

She also told the farming conference she will push towards an end to export bans, such as the ban on grain exports from Russia imposed last summer. Following domestic drought, Putin's government imposed the ban, which consequentially contributed to higher world grain prices.

A new government approach to farming, which delegates more power to local organisations, and encourages greater collaboration in the development of policy, will also be revealed by Spelman.

The commission believes subsidies are still needed to protect Europe's food supplies and rural diversity. The proposals are contained in an EU blueprint for farming beyond 2013.

The commission's options for the Cap will be discussed by the 27 EU member states before new legislation is presented in mid 2011.

Author: Marianna Keen | Climate Action

Image: thebittenword.com | Flickr

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