Simple Farm Payment

I have been to the Yorkshire Dales for a few days.

Four hours and light years away from Oilseed Rape and Sugar Beet and a reliable 3G signal. Beautiful and relaxing and yet, bizarrely, supported by the same agricultural support system that I am.

As is an olive grower in Italy and a vineyard in France.

I am not trying to say that anyone is more or less deserving of the support, and all of these areas are fabulous food producing areas in their own right; it's just that in order to keep the Dales looking like they do, the farmers who work there need to earn enough from their farming to keep it looking as the public expect it to when they come waving their right to roam and their landranger map, and right now, they can't.

So surely farmers need support to keep the countryside looking like it does. Not set in aspic, but a living and working environment, where farming is profitable in it's own right but that the stone walls and the environmentally sensitive areas are paid for by the public purse. The public has shown that it doesn't want 9000 cow super dairy farms, so it must support those farmers who are trying to make it work on a smaller scale. I am not proposing a return to production linked subsidies either, just a more intelligent system. Globally.

Where farmers are paid a fair price for the food they produce and can get support to do things which benefit society as well as themselves.