Written evidence submitted by the Soil
Association
Along with the CLA we are the only food and farming
organisation which broadly supports the view of the nature conservation
bodies. The Soil Association believes that the CAP post-2013 should
support agricultural practices that use natural resources in a
rational way, and that food production and environmental protection
can go hand in hand, and do not need to compete. Farmers should
be adequately remunerated for providing public goods in an effective
way.
1. How will the Commission's proposals affect
the ability of UK agriculture to be competitive in a global market?
See response to question 3.
2. Do the proposals ensure fair competition
for British agricultural products within the European Union?
There is nothing we are aware of
within the proposals which would prevent unfair competition for
British agricultural products.
3. Will the proposals achieve the correct
balance between productivity and sustainability?
The proposals, quite rightly do not differentiate
strongly between sustainability and productivity. Our view is
that the two can go hand in hand, and that productive farmland
can also be productive from an environmental perspective.
Farmers should be adequately remunerated for the
public goods they provide. The current proposals do seem to allow
for this, though the detail of how this would occur is not yet
clear. Agriculture provides a wide range of recognised public
goods, many of which are highly valued by society. These include
environmental public goods, such as agricultural landscapes, farmland
biodiversity, water and air quality, climate stability, resilience
to flooding, as well as social goods, such as food security, health,
rural vitality and animal welfare. Indeed, Europe's biodiversity
has co-evolved with traditional farming activities; many species
currently depend on specific agricultural management practices,
and agriculture has a large impact on a range of environmental
issues.
The problem is that many of these public goods and
services do not currently have an adequate "price" in
the market, so their provision depends on state intervention.
These vital public services justify public support and their value
is being increasingly recognised in the EU as an important output
for the CAP.
The Soil Association believes that the CAP post-2013
should support agricultural practices that use natural resources
in a rational way:
- Water: no depletion or pollution of ground water,
no use of river water that leaves rivers running low, and no pollution
of rivers.
- Soil: conservation and improvement, not degradation.
- Wildlife on farms: conservation and enhancement,
not decline.
- Landscape: conservation and positive changes
to increase diversity, not destruction of valued landscape features
like hedges.
- Climate: encourage farming practices that store
carbon in soils and that rely on renewable fertility and energy,
not fossil-fuel based fertility.
- No use of any persistent, bio-accumulative, hormone
disrupting pesticides.
- Highest standards of farm animal welfare.
We believe that organic farming can play a key role
in delivering the numerous public goods which EU citizens expect
as part of the farm business. As a system, organic farming can
deliver all (or almost all) of the above objectives much more
efficiently than an approach which relies on a myriad of policy
interventions which attempt achieve each one separately.
4. Do the proposals place the UK in a good
position to help meet future food supply challenges?
We take the phrase "future food supply challenges"
to mean the ability to produce food in a world which is contending
with climate change, resource depletion and increasing cost of
inputs including fossil fuels.
Food security is an extremely important role for
the reformed CAP. The key issue is how we define food security.
This is not a question of how we produce as much food as possible,
but how we can produce food in a sustainable manner, and provide
people with a healthy diet.
In much of the current debate, the food security
challenge is being cast in terms of the need to maintain agricultural
production capacity in the EU and that we are becoming dangerously
dependent on food imports. We disagree with this view, and the
facts support this.
- The volume of EU agricultural production in 2009
was at its second highest level ever, down only slightly on the
record level achieved in 2008. It is simply not the case that
EU production capacity was seriously affected by recent volatility
in agricultural markets.
- While EU does show a slight deficit on its agricultural
trade balance, this has not been growing and in fact the EU emerged
as a net food exporter in 2006, albeit the composition of its
imports and exports are very different. The deficit in 2008 at
$7 billion (compared to the value of imports of around $110 billion)
was unusually large, but the gap narrowed to less than $3 billion
last year.
5. Will the proposals redress the imbalance
in support to different sectors created by the historic basis
of payments?
It is currently difficult to tell whether the proposals
redress the imbalance in support to different sectors created
by the historic basis of payments.
6. What aspects of the proposals should be
made a common policy, and which are best left to Member States?
We believe that a large proportion of the policy
should be implemented at an EU level in order that a strong element
of support for effective agro-ecological production methods such
as organic farming is put in place.
7. Can the proposals be implemented simply
and cost-effectively, within a short time-scale?
It is difficult to tell whether the proposals can
be implemented simply and cost effectively, within a short time-scale
because there is currently little detail about what the detail
of the mechanisms used to carry out the proposals would be.
December 2010
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