A war of words broke out at the Oxford Farming Conference yesterday when environmentalist George Monbiot said there was no justification for farm subsidy support in its current form.
According to the controversial campaigner, farm subsidy support has no place in a society facing austerity measures.
He said it was a “gross regressive injustice” that farmers received subsidy support worth the equivalent of £245 for every UK household every year, when frontline services were being scaled back due to budget cuts.
“There will have to be some extremely big justifications for maintaining this extraordinary level of public spending which takes place under the name of farm subsidies,” said Mr Monbiot.
“The farmers on the productive land don’t need the subsidies at all. It’s just money in the bank that they stash away. It seems grotesque that we are paying farmers for what they are already doing. Those farmers who do need the subsidies, produce so little that it makes very little impact on our total food supplies.”
Not done attacking the agricultural sector on its own, Mr Monbiot accused the NFU south of the border of being in bed with government and not representing farmers properly.
“The government agency which is suppose to be regulating the sector seems to be an agency of the sector,” said Mr Monbiot.
President Meurig Raymond and his deputy Minette Batters hit back at the campaigner’s views, stressing that without subsidy support UK food security could be at risk.
Mr Raymond said: “This is as much a consumer support as it is a farming support. Back in 2013 nearly 70% of our net farm income came from that support scheme.”
Without subsidy support, the NFU leaders argued, the UK would be forced to import more food.
Mr Monbiot also attacked land ownership and said it was wrong that the majority of young farmers had inherited their holdings.
The campaigner, who has long lobbied for the re-wilding of the highlands, also proposed replacing “unproductive” sheep farming in the hills with woodland.
“Sheep farming is a massively subsidised loss-making enterprise. It’s failing to sustain local communities. Take away the public money and it’s just not going to be there any more,” said Mr Monbiot.
So what is Mr Monbiot’s vision for farm subsidy support?
Surprisingly he does not want it abolished, but instead targeted towards those who “really deserve it” and for measures such as soil protection and flood protection.
“If you want the subsidy system to continue in the future you are going to have to come up with some much better reasons for it than you have at the moment,” Mr Monbiot told farmers. “I would urge you to start standing up against the current Cap because it is going to become more and more unpopular and you will distance yourselves from the rest of the population.”