NFU President Peter Kendall will today outline how a refocused CAP could be the driver for a thriving and profitable farming industry in this country.

Speaking at the Oxford Farming Conference today, Mr Kendall will argue how Government and the European Commission still have crucial roles to play in ensuring policy is also in-line with the massive challenge of global food security

“Getting CAP right is absolutely fundamental, not just to us as farmers, but to all of us, inside Europe and out. It is difficult to overstate how much the future of the CAP matters,” Mr Kendall will say.

“But here are some suggestions on what needs to happen if we want it to work. We need to improve governance, stripping things down to bare essentials; a functioning food chain that works; evidence and science-based regulation; the power for countries to decide their own rural development programmes and environmental enhancement priorities; and a European Commission that points forwards to progress, not backwards to protection – one that champions and promotes a competitive agriculture.

“I hope my successor gets to work with a Government that promotes, rather than disadvantages, its own farmers, and one that stands at the heart of Europe, bringing others along with it, to improve agriculture’s competitiveness instead of standing on the sidelines. And finally and critically, that the EU gets back to agreeing policy in-line with, rather than out of tune with, the massive challenge of global food security.”

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