Farmers and environmentalists look set to be on their first major collision course over Government policy and EU subsidies for a generation after big agri-businesses were accused of a "cynical" attempt to "sacrifice" wildlife in pursuit of profit.
Wildlife charities across the West are crying foul over a decision by the National Farmers' Union to join a coalition of farmers' organisations in the rest of Europe which is fighting proposals to change the way subsidies are paid to farmers for good environmental stewardship.
Wildlife trusts and the RSPB – which run schemes from Somerset and Dorset to Wiltshire and Gloucestershire to help farmers get extra subsidies for helping wildlife as they farm – said the NFU is demanding governments be made to match fund green grants, "cynically knowing" that cuts at Whitehall will see them disappear entirely.
Under the current system, the EU gives governments money for farmers, but a fraction is held back from the main stream – known as "pillar one" – and diverted to "pillar two", which hands farmers special grants for planting hedgerows or encouraging rare ground-nesting birds.
At present, governments are under no obligation to match fund it, although the British Government does.
Reform of the controversial Common Agricultural Policy will see governments given the freedom to choose whether to divert up to 15 per cent from "pillar one" to the green grants of "pillar two", a move welcomed by the British Government and environmentalists.
But the NFU objects, claiming that the option of switching money would result in "grossly unfair" competition between farmers across Europe. Its president, Peter Kendall, said: "We could see the UK moving 15 per cent of its pillar one envelope into pillar two, while at the same time other member states will be moving money in the other direction. To stop this we have joined this coalition to ask for any money transferred to be match-funded by national co-financing. Only then will governments really be forced to weigh up the value of moving money into pillar two," he added.
But Tony Whitehead, who manages environmental stewardships with farmers across Somerset, Dorset and Wiltshire, said the NFU were being "wholly cynical". "They know full well that, given the state of government funding, forcing governments to match fund any money they switch will in all likelihood mean they decide not to switch any, and that will be devastating for wildlife in the West," he said.
"This is about the big agri-business lobby, which doesn't benefit from the small-scale pillar two grants that green-minded farmers get, wanting all of the money. This is farming lobby groups essentially making these funding transfers unaffordable," he said. "Pillar two money still goes to farmers, just ones that want to look after the environment as well."
"This is a highly cynical ploy by these vested interests," added the RSPB's West Country policy director Mark Robins. "It will leave farmers in these nature-rich places struggling to provide space for wildlife and all the other vital services that these landscapes provide."
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