Lion's share of CAP goes to the already wealthy

Sir, 
I have no sympathy for Brian Henderson’s feelings of devastation at the prospect of farming without the CAP (SF July 23). 
Reading his article could lead the uninitiated to think that the CAP was so well designed to the benefit of farmers that it could not be bettered and that farming will be impossible without it. 
The same misconceptions seem to be shared by Richard Wright in his Euro Notebook. The CAP was not intended to be a Common Agricultural Policy, it was a Social Welfare Policy to provide income support for the many small farms in France. 
Ever since the UK joined the Common Market and adopted the CAP, most of the income support has gone to the largest farms, especially in Scotland where the average farm size is the highest in the UK. The latest figures available from the RPID show that 28.84% of the 21,640 farm businesses which applied for subsidies received 80% of the payments disbursed in 2015, and that 20% of those businesses received 69% of the money. 
It is therefore not inappropriate to say that farm subsidies are non-means tested income support for wealthy landowners and some of us would like to see them phased out. Instead of taxing people to pay for subsidies which inevitably increase the market price of land to put it out of the reach of young would-be farmers, the money would be better left with those who earn it so that they could afford to pay more for the food we produce. 
We need a policy for agriculture which will reduce our costs of production through land and tax reform, not subsidies which do nothing to reduce the cost of food for consumers.
Contrary to popular opinion and that of so-called experts, including Commissioner Hogan, farmers in Scotland are not dependent on subsidies for 65% of their incomes. Official statistics of farmers’ incomes are not their taxable incomes but are Net Farm Incomes (NFI) which were used when post-war deficiency payments were introduced and annual price reviews fixed produce prices. 
Owner-occupiers with no rent to pay deducted imputed farm rents from their profits and imputed wages were also deducted for family farm workers who lived in the farmhouse. NFI is an index of earnings to allow comparisons between years to be made and is not relevant today to assess a supposed need for income support which is not means-tested.
Those who want to continue with the present system should look at the list of those who receive the largest payments. Is it right to give large amounts to such as the RSPB? Instead of fretting about “independence”, the Scottish Government should use its existing devolved powers for land and tax reform and look forward to leaving the EU when more powers will be devolved. 
Getting rid of the iniquitous VAT which the EU insists on keeping, will allow more wealth to be produced in Scotland than the most optimistic “remainers” could hope for by being in the EU.