CAP's future and food safety under the microscope

British and German agriculture ministers on Tuesday said they would push for radical restructuring of the European Union's agricultural policy to take account of the environment as well as food production.

Margaret Beckett, Britain's newly-appointed Minister for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, said the time had never been more ripe to secure change in Europe's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).

Speaking at a one-day international conference in London on the future direction of European agriculture, Beckett told delegates that countries must take a more diversified approach to farming, based on rural support and environmental sustainability.

"The tragic impact of recent crises in animal health have sharply and starkly reminded us of the impact the agricultural industry has on other areas," she said.

The new approach to agriculture should not be dominated by the food industry, 90 per cent of CAP spending still supports food production, but should take a "multi-functional" approach, said Graham Wynne, chief executive of Britain's Royal Society for the Protection of Birds.

German Agriculture Minister Renate Kuenast said future CAP should be geared more towards consumers and not just farmers.

"We have taxpayers who are asking themselves whether it is right to continue to pay billions for this old-fashioned type of agriculture," Kuenast said.

"The consumer must be at the centre of our attention.

The German government wants an agriculture which provides safer and higher quality food, produced in a sustainable and welfare- oriented way."

Lord Haskins, chairman of Britain's Northern Foods Plc, blamed the CAP for encouraging intensive production practices through its subsidy system, which had fuelled food safety problems such as mad cow and foot-and-mouth disease.

Food safety was a key issue that needed to be addressed urgently by all members of the agricultural industry: farmers, the feed and food industry, retailers, consumers and politicians.

But measures aimed at improving animal welfare and environmental sustainability would raise costs for farmers, while consumers still demand and expect lower prices.

"Consumers must also be prepared to pay a little more for better quality.

To do so they need the relevant information and education," Kuenast said.

However, Haskins and other delegates doubted whether more than 10 per cent of consumers would be willing or even capable of paying Haskins, an adviser to the British government, has proposed a set of radical proposals for CAP reform, urging the EU to scrap quotas and replace automatic subsidies, instead requiring farmers to earn financial support through better environmental use of their land.

But Michael Paske, vice-president of the National Farmers' Union, said the switch from production-based support to the environment needed to be carried out sensitively.

"If farmers are burdened with more and more regulation they will not be able to meet the needs of the market.

They will be even more dependent on public funds to survive," he said in a statement.

Risto Volanen, general-secretary of the European farmers' lobby COPA, said dismantling support policies and total liberalisation would lead to a U.S.-style industry, dominated by consolidation and concentration "...where only the richest people would have quality food in the future."

Although Germany and Britain have moved towards a common stance on CAP reform, speakers said the biggest challenge would be getting agricultural heavyweight France aboard.

"The problem is going to be to persuade the French government that they are going to have to tackle the problem, even if their farmers don't like it," Haskins said.