Government consults on how agriculture money should be spent

This blog was created as part of the original Valuing Nature Network (2011-2014)

No I wasn't awake at 5.45am this morning but if you were, you might have heard BBC Radio 4 farming today discussing the reforms to the EU Common Agriculture Policy.

Sounds a bit techical?  Well if you can cut through the jargon there is an important decision to be made on how the money is spent and how much of it will be used to protect the environment. Something of interest to both farmers and environmentalists!

The government is apparently suggesting moving 15% of the CAP budget to a pot for spending on rural development and conservation.

As you can imagine not all farmers are happy about this - but it sounds like some environmentalists think that these reforms do not go far enough. You can hear the interviews on farming today website (item starts at minute 9.08 and is available to listen again til 7 Nov).

There are just 28 days to get your views across, so if this is important to you let the government know on in their consultation hosted on the Defra website.