The Common Agricultural Policy

Written by Doug Young

CAP has two ‘Pillars’: Pillar 1 and Pillar 2. They each have different amounts of money reserved for them and have different purposes. Part of the finance can be spent as the receiving country chooses as long as the criteria are followed; The other part must be spent on directed initiatives. There is a way to switch (or modulate) money between the two pillars.

Dartmoor and the Common Agricultural Policy

Written by Doug Young

The Common Agricultural Policy is teeming with myths. Many believe there is a fairy godmother who showers farmers with gold from her CAP just for being farmers. If the fairy godmother ever existed she is long vanished. CAP now insists on proven value for all its discretionary grants.

Farming on Dartmoor - The Foundation

Written by Doug Young

A wasteland of impenetrable gorse. Crumbling paths through dank and decaying woodland.  Decrepit stone walls entombing overgrown fields. Dwindling communities living hand to mouth. One or two cars creeping along the broken roads. Silence...abandoned pubs, shuttered restaurants, deserted farms, barren villages, desolate meadows...the farmers have fled Dartmoor.

What are Ecosystem Services ?

An ecosystem may be considered as a unit within which an assemblage of living organisms interact with each other and with the chemical and physical environment. The resulting natural processes establish a series of complex ecological balances. Ecosystems may operate at a wide range of scales, from long-term global systems such as oceans, to very small, localised or ephemeral systems such as freshwater pools that persist for only short periods.