Scandals

Scandals surface periodically around the subject of Common Agriculture Policy and Farm Subsidy arrangements. Monday’s Panorama programme on BBC1 concentrated mostly on the purchase of entitlements, the way anyone can claim to be a farmer and the fact that immensely wealthy people get huge annual payments by doing very little apart from sitting on their assets (!!)

Other serious concerns relate to lack of transparency and lack of accountability. Who gets what of our money? Who checks up on them and whether they do what they say? etcetera

Relevance to Blacka Moor and the Sheffield Moors starts with the consultations going on in 2005/2006, when there was considerable coyness from the managers about whether Blacka would be designated as farmland once they put cattle on the land.. It’s necessary to recall that many of us outside the industry, including elected representatives, were very ignorant in those days both of the farm payments system and the way the conservation industry works. The subject of farm payments was raised at a meeting called to consider whether cattle should be brought onto the land, and after some minimal discussion I can safely say that those not in the industry were left very much in the dark. Now, seven years later we know that the farm subsidies and agri-environment schemes were a major factor in decisions made – decisions that have left us with an ongoing reduction in the appeal of this area of countryside, with what is natural and more natural being marginalised in favour of what is managed – and managed means farmed and exploited.