CAP pessimism is overdone

AFTER nearly 40 years of relative prosperity in the EU, farmers are taking the Lisbon No campaign warning of tough times ahead for agriculture with a big pinch of salt.

In the middle of their worst product-price and weather-related income crisis in generations, if farmers were as pessimistic as No campaigners, they would just give up. But that’s not the spirit that keeps farmers going through the difficulties that crop up every day in agriculture.

They will look on the bright side, and give thanks that world trade talks are no nearer agreement than when they started in 2001. Their more immediate concern on the broad EU stage is the three years of political give and take in negotiating the next phase of the Common Agricultural Policy, after 2013.