Kendall’s call for rethink at Westminster

The president of the English NFU yesterday called on the UK government to change its current approach to the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy and concentrate on policies that would ensure more food was produced.

Speaking at a food security conference in London, Peter Kendall expressed his continued concern that the current European Commission proposals to reform the CAP would do very little if anything to ensure European farmers contributed to the global food security challenge.

He claimed it was not too late for the government to change the course of CAP reform and in doing so, show leadership to other member states and influential MEPs.

“Under previous reforms, we had very clear direction of travel in favour of a policy that eliminated distorting support, brought decoupling, supports competitiveness and sensibly delivered targeted support for environmental goods. There is a real danger that those positive steps will be lost in this round,” he said

ANDREW ARBUCKLE