There is much about the CAP proposals that requires us to think a little more broadly about the incoming shifts, their immediate impact and the wider impacts that affect many, many facets of the challenges that face farming. Farmers are not a homogenous group who will all be impacted by various changes in the same way and of course, the personal impact affects their support or opposition to any particular development.
The proposal from the European Commission to end direct CAP payments for farmers who are in receipt of State pensions with a suggested target year of 2032, is one of those where the eventual outcomes, intended or not, need closer scrutiny.
It is claimed that the proposed change is part of a plan to shift support towards younger farmers and encourage generational renewal in agriculture and the European Commission argues this move is necessary to help younger farmers get a start in the industry and to support the transfer of farms to the next generation. The proposal includes plans for new payments, such as a €25,000 Young Farmer Establishment Payment and a matching €25,000 Generational Renewal Payment for older farmers who transfer their land.
This proposal is particularly problematic for Ireland as a significant portion of Irish farmers are over 65. Responses from political circles have been mixed with some reports appearing to support it whilst others have criticised it, labelling it as crude and failing to account for farmers who have no identified successor.
But concerns should go deeper than that. Climate and environmental policies and strategies hinge largely on the co-operation of farmers in a variety of schemes which push them this way and that, depending on what is the highest priority at the moment. And of course, this has involved the construction of vast volumes of regulations, directives and national schemes.
The heavy-handedness of government policy has increased in recent years with some positions failing to recognise a line being crossed. One such example was the introduction of the Public Services Card which was ‘compulsory but not mandatory’. No legislative basis was introduced to make it ‘mandatory’ but a number of administrative limitations made it impossible to obtain public services without one – making it a National ID card by stealth. A case brought by Digital Rights Ireland thankfully saw sanity restored.
A move to cease CAP payments to any farmer in receipt of a pension is not a neutral act that merely incentivises succession and handover to young farmers. In a country where few farms are viable entities without CAP supports given the market restraints and controls, it is, in effect, a move to force all farmers to stop farming at pension age. That it is proposed to come with a €25,000 payment doesn’t make it any less of an incursion on fundamental rights.
No other life or financial circumstance disqualifies a farmer from claiming the CAP payments that they are entitled to. You can win the lottery and still claim CAP payments. Or gain a large inheritance and still claim your CAP payments. Why should reaching pension age and claiming your pension change your entitlement?
A scheme where farmers who have reached pension age and choose to avail of such supports while their successor is also supported is very different than a proposal to strip CAP payments from all farmers at 67. CAP payments have always existed as a compensatory mechanism for producing food below the cost of production. Efforts are increasingly underway at an EU level to redefine these ‘compensatory supports’ as ‘income supports’.
These two definitions of supports are radically different in effect and caution should be followed in allowing this redefinition to slide by. If a payment is compensatory in nature, then it is something you have an entitlement to. There is the possibility that you can argue for, lobby for and potentially even sue for, if it is denied. An income support is something that you have no entitlement to and can be changed at any time with little to no recourse.
The phrase “the road to hell is paved with good intentions” springs to mind. My concern is that a single mechanism to force farmers of pension age out of farming in the context of all of the other elements that have pushed over 1 million farmers out of the industry across Europe, should be viewed with caution.