Brussels plans green farming revolution

BRUSSELS, Oct 8 (AFP): In a radical and controversial overhaul of its Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), the EU plans a greener, fairer farm policy by tying subsidies to environmental concerns, according to leaked documents seen by AFP. The documents outline a proposed reform of the CAP from January 2014 to be presented Wednesday by the European Union's agriculture commissioner Dacian Ciolos. Among his proposals to reform the CAP, which traditionally accounts for about 40 per cent of the bloc's annual spending of nearly 140 billion euros, is a call for 30 per cent of EU direct farm subisidies to be conditioned on respect for the environment. The measures include crop diversity-planting at least three varieties, with no more than 70 per cent of land used for a single crop-and using seven per cent of arable land as ecological fallows that are havens for plants, animals and insects. But the idea of greening Europe's farms triggered an angry response from Europe's leading farmers' organisation, Copa- Cogeca.