CAP Reform speech: 12th March 2013

I spoke today in Strasbourg about CAP reform. I was the only West Midlands MEP to speak on this issue.

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Not a single sane person in this chamber will disagree with me when I say that the Common Agricultural Policy needs reforming..

The EU needs to reduce intervention to a genuine safety net, move towards a market oriented approach, and end the situation whereby farmers chase subsidies and not markets. The old style CAP market protection, so beloved by our French neighbours and others should be consigned to a box marked 'failed political projects'.

But what reform are we really going to see here?

We have been talking about this for two years, and still the parliament's agriculture committee cannot reach agreement on the content. What message does that send to the farming sector?

Both environmentalists and farmers alike are highly critical of the 'green' aspects of these proposals. How then can the public believe that their environmental concerns are being addressed?

I believe that the people best qualified to look after the British landscape are British farmers, not unelected bureaucrats in Brussels.

CAP is expensive and over bureaucratised. It adds to the weekly food bill of every family in Great Britain. Professor Patrick Minford of the Cardiff Business school, a leading critic of the CAP, is on record as stating that the average family would be much better off if we left the EU, and not only in terms of cheaper food.

A weekend at the Three Counties Show

As some of you will be aware, both myself and my team ran a stall at the weekends Three Counties Show which was held at the Malvern Showground.

Despite a fair amount of terrible weather, many thousands of people attended the show and I was able to speak to a great many people about agricultural issues that affected them.

I was the only MEP with a stand at the event, in fact I was the only politician with a mobile surgery at the event. I did see some politicians on Friday with suspiciously clean shoes, but failed to see anyone else over the weekend.

The Three Counties show was a great chance to speak to many farmers from different sectors of farming life. Here I am talking to those who were manning the National Sheep Association stall.

The farmer in the above picture was adding pig oils to the sheeps wool to keep its moisture.

A selection of bulls head towards the barns following judging.

Discussing CAP reform in the NFU tent.