I take your point, and I was mostly just pointing out the parallels with OP's description of the US (which also included "soil conservation"). For the CAP, my

I take your point, and I was mostly just pointing out the parallels with OP's description of the US (which also included "soil conservation"). For the CAP, my reading is that most of the payment really is just for "not farming" - the cross-compliance rules expect a bit more, yes, but the penalties for not doing so are pretty light - you only have a 1% chance of getting inspected per year, and even repeated and intentional noncompliance normally only knocks 20% off your payments. I'm looking at page 12 of https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/579836/Cross_Compliance_2017_rules_FINAL.pdf https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/... - I'm not involved with farming though, so take anything I say with a generous pinch of salt.