Memorandum submitted by Guy Smith (RAS
12)
1. 95% of British farmers are, and will
remain, dependant on producing globally traded commodities that
are also produced around the world. Despite undoubted technical
efficiency British farmers will struggle to compete against their
foreign competitors because of high costs through structural factors
in Britain such as high land and labour costs. Similarly we live
in a society that expects high standards from its own farmers
in terms of: food safety; animal welfare; environmental care.
This is enforced through Government regulation that drives up
the farmers costs of production. The killer irony for farmers
is that British consumers seem happy to buy on price prefering
cheaper imports produced to lower standards.
2. In the past the CAP has protected farmers
from the inevitable consequences of this disparity by seeking
to protect home markets from foreign competition and through support
payments. I would suggest if the CAP is to be dismantled and this
protection withdrawn then British farmers will struggle to survive.
3. But there is another possible strategy
for survival outside the past conventional thinking of the CAP
that policy makers and farmers should consider. British farmers
should seek to promote their products and their services (particularly
in relation to the environment) to British consumers and citizens.
We have 60 million affluent consumers on our doorstep, if we can
secure a significant part of that market by securing a home loyalty
and preference—then, as British farmers, we have a future.
4. To do this we must finance and devise
effective promotional campaigns and educational initiatives. At
the present time British agriculture suffers from a paucity of
this. There is a role for Government here even if Government is
intent on abandoning their past strategies of protecting agriculture
through the present CAP. If Governments demand relatively high
food safety, animal welfare, environmental standards from their
farmers then Governments have a moral/political obligation to
promote these standards to their citizens as consumers. Furthermore
Governments have an obligation to explain to tax payers and citizens
the role of the farmer in maintaining the countryside through
schemes such as the ELS.
5. If the CAP is to continue to be a pan-EU
policy then these arguments can also be made on a pan EU basis
rather than just a parochial UK one.
June 2006
| 
