FARMERS keen to understand more about the new world of CAP reform were drawn to the recent NFU Pershore Conference.

Somerset farmer and MEP Neil Parish, and Guy Smith, who farms on the Essex coast, were the main speakers, alongside regional NFU senior adviser Andrew Richards.

Mr Parish, whose constituency embraces the South West English region and also Gibraltar, sits on the Agriculture Committee in the European Parliament.

He expressed his concern that CAP changes were not being implemented at the same rate among the member states.

"The UK is already the first to come in with details of our Single Farm Payment (SFP). France looks to 2007, Spain to 2006. It should be synchronised. How meticulously will everyone stick to the rules?

"The reform has a great potential to get the Government off our backs and let us be free to grown and market what we like.

"But there is a major problem with the maze of directives coming out of Brussels.

"We need a Latin, not an Anglo-Saxon, response to the plethora of regulations.

"We create more burdens for ourselves by reinforcing and strengthening new Brussels rulings. A lot of regulations from Brussels are not vetted by Parliament but go straight to the Civil Servants who draft gold-plated rules.

"The workload involved is self-fulfilling for Defra to expand. We have more Defra officials than dairy farmers.

"The cheapest food in the world will come from Brazil. Europe will never compete in price on food.

"We must go for welfare of farm animals and insist on standards by the WTO. We must endorse and promote the interest and demand for locally produced food in markets and retail stores."

Mr Richards, in the panel session, said: "It is up to the individual farmer to decide how to use the SFP when it arrives on his desk.

"How can we stem the weight of bureaucracy increasingly affecting so many aspects of our lives?"

Chairman Dr David Hall, former principal of Pershore Group of Colleges, said: "We have a fantastic success story in UK agriculture, in the food we produce and in our welfare of animals -and as custodians of the countryside."

"Politicians are tempted to see farming as a burden, not an asset, contributing less than 1 per cent to our GDP," said Mr Smith.

"The countryside is seen as a national treasure, a wildlife reserve, yet it is also our factory floor.

"The majority of schoolchildren are ignorant about how their food is produced.

"Regrettably, many of their teachers are not well enough informed either.

"It is up to farmers to host school parties on their farms and this should be built into the curriculum, a vital part of education."

Mr Smith said he was shocked when his seven-year-old daughter borrowed a story book from school with a picture of farmland displaying rabbits, a fox, badgers and wild birds, while an owl, flying overhead, warned them: "I have seen drums of poison on the ground. The land is being poisoned."

He said the coloured picture also featured a board with a death's head on it. "It is shocking that children are being brainwashed in this way," said Mr Smith.

"And it is not just in children's storybooks that false accusations occur. Such forecasts as 'Songbirds are under threat. Unless modern agriculture changes, the farm songbirds could go the way of the dodo' are untrue and irresponsible. No mention of household cats."

In his determination to set the record straight, Mr Smith has produced a glossy 28-page booklet entitled Farm, Food and Countryside.

Already 200,000 copies have been published to be distributed free.

"Since its launch at Smithfield I have been humbled by the response" he said.

"I want it to go to pubs and clubs and doctors waiting rooms, as well as schools, libraries and households, shops and supermarkets, to be read and talked about.

"Farmers have so many opportunities to come into contact with the public, especially now at farmers' markets and farm shops.

"We have been too reticent in countering misleading criticisms and adverse publicity. British farmers are first-class custodians of the countryside.

"British food is the safest and consumers might demand it and even be prepared to pay a premium. Tesco might get the message."