Public interest key to EU farm payment replacement

With no sign of what will replace CAP, rural communities have every right to be nervous, writes Martyn Mclaughlin

It may be one of the less exciting issues surrounding Brexit, but the question of what will ultimately replace the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in Scotland is one of the most important ones facing the country.

For decades, the policy has proved a vital, if imperfect contract between agriculture and society. It ensures that those who make their living from the land are able to do so without the fear of penury, and it guarantees all of us a stable supply of affordable food.

Without the basic payment provided by the CAP system, countless farming businesses across Scotland would not be viable, and without some of the supplementary payments –such as those for ‘greening’ methods – our natural environment would be a lot worse off.

And without CAP, some of the country’s leading charities would be staring at a financial black hole. Last year, RSPB Scotland received more than £4.6 million through the initiative, £2.8m of which came in the form of direct aid.

But as with so many other mechanisms, CAP will soon be no more thanks to Brexit. With no clear sign of what will replace it, entire industries and rural communities have every right to be nervous.

As things stand, a continuity system will remain in place until 2024, under which the Scottish government will oversee a “simplified” process. But make no mistake – what follows will rightly be subject to spirited debate.

There are already signs of divergence between the future approach in Scotland and that in England. Fergus Ewing, the Cabinet Secretary for the Rural Economy, has criticised the UK government’s plans to stop financial support for food production by 2028 as part of its new emerging agricultural policy.

With the issue devolved, the Scottish government is likely to take an altogether different tack, and Mr Ewing has tentatively floated the idea of ensuring that pig and dairy farmers, as well as arable and hill farming, are among the beneficiaries of the new subsidy system here.

But there are other factors to be taken into account beyond a homegrown food supply chain. The tentative Westminster proposals have been praised by Tony Juniper, the chairman of Natural England, who said they could help kickstart a “revolution” which rewards those who make long-term investments which benefit the environment and help tackle the climate emergency.

With the climate crisis the defining political issue, and Glasgow hosting the COP26 UN climate change conference later this year, expect to hear a lot more about the importance of further tethering the new rural subsidy system to clearly defined environmental goals.

But more than that, Scotland has an opportunity to ensure that the successor to CAP does not unduly reward those with vast wealth and landholdings. Over the past few days, I have written a series of stories in The Scotsman and Scotland on Sunday detailing some of the biggest beneficiaries of CAP payments since the EU referendum.

They include serving government ministers, numerous MSPS, several peers, and a councillor who is the present-day holder of a baronetcy first conferred upon the Duke of Wellington’s surgeon-general. It also takes in foreign heads of state, oligarchs, and families whose fortunes stretch back centuries thanks to the system of aristocracy.

It also includes so-called ‘slipper farmers’ – enterprising individuals who purchase farms, and their