A Farmers’ Union of Wales delegation to Brussels highlighted the dangers to Wales and the EU of Defra’s approach to CAP reform at a time when all parties should be pushing for a properly funded scheme recognising the key role agriculture must play in maintaining food security and mitigating climate change.
Mr Vaughan said although a favourable euro -sterling exchange rate has significantly helped the industry over the past year, Aberystwyth University’s Farm Business Survey results highlighted the industry’s continuing reliance on CAP payments to remain financially viable.
"So, in the absence of a system that ensures fair returns for our produce, the outcome of the forthcoming discussions on the post -2013 CAP is crucial to our future prospects.
"To get some idea of what the worst possible post -2013 CAP might look like, we need look no further than our own Westminster government policy, as laid out in the Defra -Treasury 2005 CAP policy document.
"Since 2005 the FUW has warned that that policy - which advocates less direct aid, more imports into the EU, and lower food prices - would devastate our industry and the rural areas in which we live."
Research commissioned by Defra and the Welsh Assembly also confirmed what the FUW had been saying for the past four years - that Defra’s policy would lead to a 26% fall in cattle prices, cattle numbers would plummet by between 26 and 29% and sheep prices would fall by around 12%.
Sheep numbers would fall by around 17% and similar trends are predicted for the milk, pig and poultry sectors.
"While it may have been drafted in 2005, this is not Defra’s 2005 policy: This is Defra’s policy now,” said Mr Vaughan.
"Despite their own reports warning that their policy will 'hasten the decline in agricultural employment' and 'employment within the wider rural economy' while undermining 'the viability of the rural population', Defra has made no u -turn and, for all the warm words recently spoken by Hillary Benn in favour of agriculture, its policy is to destroy our rural communities and businesses.
"So in terms of the forthcoming negotiations on the future of the CAP, which will be critical to farming in Wales, this is the policy that Defra will be trying to push, and even as I speak, Defra officials are no doubt holding meetings and discussions about how best to get as many of these catastrophic policies into the post -2013 CAP.
“We believe that people should not be pushing for Defra to be at the European Parliament’s negotiating table because it would be advocating a policy that evidence shows will devastate farming and our rural communities.”