Food supply concern over CAP reform (From Western Telegraph)

Food supply concern over CAP reform

Reform of Europe's Common Agricultural Policy could leave Britain over-reliant on food imports, farmers have been warned.

"If I was a Government minister, I would regard it as a surrender of my responsibility if I allowed the country to depend too heavily on food imports," Conservative Euro MP Jonathan Evans told a meeting of senior Farmers' Union of Wales (FUW) members in Pembrokeshire recently. He said: "The idea that because it is easy to import foodstuffs today it wlll be just as easy to import food tomorrow is doubtful.

"The first responsibility of any government is to feed its people - that's what the CAP was all about when it was first established after the Second World War."

Mr Evans said that while CAP reform was inevitable, it was crucial that a proper food supply was maintained.

He was echoing fears expressed by the FUW that CAP reform could cost jobs and harm the rural economy. The union is concerned that decoupling - making payments to farmers based on the area of land they farm rather than the number of livestock on the holding - could lead to a greatly reduced level of livestock.

Although the exact impact of such a move is difficult to predict, the FUW has said any reduction in the size of cattle herds or sheep flocks will lead to increased levels of food imports - at the cost of the rural economy.

During a wide-ranging debate, Mr Evans and members also discussed illegal food imports, changes to the dairy regime within Europe as part of the CAP negotiatlons, and the foot and mouth outbreak.