The mood music on the future shape of the Common Agricultural Policy is clearly starting to shift. Political debate is finally moving beyond the skewed focus of former European Commissioner for Agriculture Dacian Ciolos on the need for the redistribution and flattening of CAP payments across member states and farmers.

Discussion is now moving towards developing policy that strikes a balance between safeguarding food production and delivering on issues such as environmental sustainability and climate change.

The extent to which the political narrative has shifted was evident at the second annual Agricultural Outlook Conference in Brussels last week. Organised by Commissioner for Agriculture Phil Hogan, the event attracted political heavyweights including European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, along with the commissioners for environment and climate action. Along with Commissioner Hogan all three will play an important role in shaping the future direction of CAP.

In his conference address, while not shying away from the need to address environmental challenges, Hogan effectively put supporting active food producers back at the core of the CAP. He spoke of how a future CAP must ensure greater market resilience, more sustainable production systems and attract young talent into farming. Few could argue that a well-funded Pillar 1 that targets support to active food producers, underpins farm incomes in a downturn and gives farmers the tools to become more efficient delivers across all three criteria. While we can devise all sorts of schemes to stimulate innovation and attract young people into the sector, by far the best catalyst is to create an environment that delivers profitability and income security.

In a frank assessment of market intervention measures, Hogan questioned the effectiveness of the current “toolkit” available and the Commission’s ability to intervene sufficiently and quickly enough to protect farm incomes. His comments are significant and show an acceptance that despite the push towards more market-orientated measures in recent years, CAP must still provide the necessary instruments to allow for market intervention to protect farm incomes. If logic were to apply, such a focus would see the reintroduction of a range of market intervention measures. Albeit likely to face challenges within Brussels and at WTO level, the reintroduction of export refunds as a market intervention tool that cannot be manipulated by a dysfunctional supply chain should be considered.

Listen to an interview with Commissioner Hogan in our podcast below:

Listen to "Hogan on unfair trading practices and CAP reform" on Spreaker.

The changing narrative around environmental sustainability, away from simply ceasing production towards the adoption of farm practices that ultimately allow farmers to produce more from less, also appears to be gaining political acceptance in Brussels. In the context of climate change, such a move has the potential for efficient food production models to be seen as part of the solution rather than the problem.

It is clearly a message that Hogan is trying to cultivate and, with it, the need for CAP to support efficient farmers in the areas of soil and nutrient management, knowledge transfer and adoption of best practice production techniques.

In the context of what will undoubtedly be a fierce political battle to protect the CAP budget ahead of the next reform, President Juncker’s address will undoubtedly carry political weight. Having made reference to his steadfast support for CAP, he highlighted how agriculture supports 44m jobs – twice the number of employees in the EU auto and aviation sectors combined. In his address, Juncker confirmed that the Commission will open communications on the next phase of CAP in early 2017.

This will provide the first real opportunity for farm organisations and industry stakeholders to start and refocus CAP back in the direction of productive farmers. While there is no doubt that the mood music coming from Brussels is more positive, reshaping CAP will still be met with stiff resistance from a range of groups.

For farm organisations, the focus should be on leading the environmental debate and demonstrating the role of CAP in underpinning efficient food production models that are part of the environmental solution and not the problem.