Union boss says British farmers accept change but timing is vital

THE Common Agricultural Policy has already been reformed, but one would not think so listening to politicians, the Oxford Farming Conference was told.

British National Farmers Union president Tim Bennett said CAP reform has come to be represented as a kind of magic wand that might provide the resolution not only to the WTO trade talks and world poverty, but also to any crisis of the European integration process.

Some media voices have been keen to present the farming community as a selfish group wishing to preserve the CAP at any cost. These are the same voices that over emphasise the percentage of the EU budget devoted to the CAP.