A new parliamentary report damning the Common Agricultural Policy should be the catalyst for an overhaul of this failing farming system.
The RSPB gave evidence to the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee, whose review, published today (May 23), says the CAP should be scrapped.
Dr Sue Armstrong Brown, Head of Countryside Policy at the RSPB said: "The CAP is a dinosaur of a policy that does not recognise the environmental and social needs of the future.
"Water quality is not improving quickly enough and the 2010 targets for farmland wildlife recovery are in danger of being missed.
"This report should herald a new dawn for farming where help for wildlife, the health benefits of countryside visits and tackling climate change are the top priorities. Currently these things are regarded as being nice to have and nothing more."
The EU is planning a health check' of the CAP in 2008. The RSPB believes the vast sums spent on farming subsidies should be switched to initiatives that improve the countryside.
Dr Armstrong Brown said: "Money must be made to work much harder. The CAP is no longer working for our countryside and will not meet the needs of the new EU countries as well. It should be replaced with a new rural policy that brings agriculture into the 21st century."
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