Farming: Buzzwords to describe the CAP? I can think of a few

I SPENT a morning last week looking at old photos of farming meetings, while I was in the archives of the Scottish Museum of Rural Life at Kittochside. (Please do not ­consider that a sad admission as it was one of those horrible windy, wet days that have plagued this month and I was dry and warm.)

The photographs from half a century ago had a degree of uniformity. The audiences were almost always all male and the seated ranks were in their dark grey Sunday suits. There was always a fair amount of cigarette smoke, too, with a visible pall hanging over the crowd.

In comparison, last Wednesday as I glanced around to see those attending the Scottish Government workshop on the next Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), I was pleased to see some progress had been made towards gender equality. The smokers have long been ostracised and the sombre suits of my father’s generation had given way to a more relaxed informality in dress.

Up front, options on converting farm subsidies in Scotland to an area-based payment system from production-based support were being explained.

Another comparison with a previous generation of meetings came to mind as behind the speaker were a couple of “pop-ups”. These portable advertising displays are today ubiquitous – even the Scottish Government does not seem to be able to hold a meeting without them. (Though I cannot deny they are more attractive than looking at some dull nicotine-stained hotel wallpaper that provided the backdrop to speakers of a previous generation.)

The Scottish Government pop-ups last week had a fancy logo claiming to “take the CAP forward”. Below that there was an array of pretty pictures of pigs and raspberries and nice Scottish landscapes – all of which, in a denial of the recent reality, had been taken on a fine sunny day.

But it was the words on the display boards that really got me. Now, remember that they were there to describe the forthcoming CAP. I noted: “Proportionate”; “Targeted”; “Resilient”; “Deliverable”; “Adaptable”; “Green” (inevitably); “Fair” and “Simple”.

Some bright spark of a civil servant had decided these buzzwords were the most appropriate description of the next CAP. However, I had just listened to an outline of some 30 options on land-based payments so – unless the word “Simple” has picked up a new and opposite meaning recently – I found that I disagreed.

I found myself wondering what all those sitting uncomfortably in their Sunday best half a century ago would have made of it. At their meetings, it was quite likely the politicians and farm leaders were explaining the latest decisions from the Annual Price Review that decided agricultural profitability every bit as much as the CAP does today.

The price review was based on paying minimum prices for almost all the commodities produced on the farm and it operated from 1947 right up until the UK entry into Europe.

I mentally left last week’s conference at a point where the union president, Nigel Miller, was speaking in support of the Swedish model and using the “Irish tunnel”. Before you think I had wandered into some seedier discussion, I assure you these are the front-runners in policy terms for the next CAP and, without going too deeply into the details of either, both want as little change as possible to existing support.

By this time I was checking out every word on the pop- ups against the price review system and – apart from “Green”, which had not been invented unless you mixed the colours blue and yellow together – every one of the 21st century words fitted last century’s main policy.

In comparison, very few of the words fitted the current proposals.

The rural affairs secretary had stated they were not “Fair”, especially so in relation to linked or coupled support. “Resilient” may have slipped in from every Scottish Government press release on the bad weather in the past year, and seemed to have little to do with policies that will either work or will not.

I shall reserve comment on “Deliverable” until I see the £20 million computer investment that is needed to ensure the next CAP actually works – that is an investment of £1,000 per head for every one of the expected 20,000 farmers who will get support.

In the meantime, my suggestions for the next Scottish Government pop-up displays on CAP include: “Devilishly Complicated”, “Downright Unfair”, “Muddy Green” and “Expensive”. Other nominations welcomed.