Thanks for this substantial and thoughtful response to my diary.  It started out as a comment response to a typical piece of urban socialist farmer bashing which I felt didn't capture the complexities of the issues involved, not necessarily as a defence of the CAP per se, although the CAP has ameliorated the worst effects of deregulation/industrialisation and slowed the destruction of traditional farming with all the community and sustainability impacts this would entail.

Your piece also helps fulfil my second objective, which is to move the debate on from the undoubted defects of a bureaucratic CAP which has been shaped largely by a political compromise between the ruling classes and a (rapidly declining) farmer class, to a much broader argument about sustainability, food security, bio-diversity, the quality of the environment, energy intensity,  rural living and urban/rural planning.

I'm struggling to find a more expert community to discuss this with, because I want to move beyond the cliches into more measurable policy objectives and the political alliances required to make them realistic goals.  But hopefully this will get a debate going on ET as well.

notes from no w here