It's all Hotting up for Decisions in Implementing the CAP

摘要

For well over two years there has been intense debate over reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) post 2015 and here we are, in the autumn of 2013, approaching decisions that will set the framework within which our farming businesses will workfor the next five years. No one reading this will dispute the importance of the CAP to sheep farming and the crucial role it plays in supporting farm businesses, even though many would claim that it has stood in the way of progress and can act as a barrier to new entrants. It can be argued that the CAP has been an effective policy tool that has resulted in plentiful food availability for the majority of people at reasonable prices. That's what it set out to do and, certainly from a distance, it has achieved its objective.