ICOS conference hears of benefits of retaining CAP in current format

CONSUMERS and farmers in the EU would benefit from retaining the Common Agricultural Policy in its current format, according to delegates attending the ICOS Livestock and Marts national conference in the Heritage Hotel, Killenard, Co Laois.

Principal speakers at the co-op group’s annual forum agreed that consumers and the European taxpayer benefit just as much as the farming community from a vibrant agriculture and food industry. The CAP in its present format sustains this integral European industry and must be retained at all costs, the speakers agreed.

ICOS Livestock and Marts Committee chairman Michael Spellman said yesterday: “This is not simply a budgetary issue, as some powerful quarters wish to slash the funding of the CAP; instead it will have an impact on producers, rural communities and society across the entirety of Europe.