A senior figure at the National Farmers Union has rejected the notion there would be a “massive bonfire of regulation” if Britain left the EU as “fanciful”.
Martin Haworth, deputy director general, also revealed that he had historically been received more sympathetically in Brussels than Westminster.
And he insisted there was no other model giving the UK equal access to the single market.
He made the remarks at the UK in a Changing Europe annual conference in central London.
The NFU’s view, which was reached after consultation and evidence-taking, is that Britain is on balance better off staying in the EU.
Mr Haworth said the single market was more important to agriculture than the rest of the economy, because 65-70% of exports go there.
And he pointed to the uncertainty a Brexit would bring and the more than 50 trade agreements which the EU has negotiated with third countries.
He added that British agriculture relied heavily on a seasonal workforce with about 20,000-25,000 labourers a year required.
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He said Oxford University had concluded that under a proposed points based system 96% of workers currently employed in agriculture would not have got through.
Mr Haworth continued: “Britain is a much more urban society than most of the rest of Europe.
“You don’t necessarily get the same degree of political sympathy. From personal experience I can say, through a long history of working in Whitehall and Brussels, I get much more access, much more interest, more sympathy in Brussels than I do in Westminster.”
He said subsidies were not the most important issue, rather the equality of treatment, but also rejected the idea the payments would be continued or even increased outside the EU.
On regulation, he added: “We are not satisfied with the current situation… but whether or not that would be improved if we left the EU I doubt.
“There would still be regulation. The idea there would be a massive bonfire of regulation is fanciful and one of the things farmers complain about most is gold plating – that is taking European regulations and making them more complicated and more onerous when they are applied in Britain.”
Among those in favour of a Brexit are UK Farming Minister George Eustice and former environment secretary Own Paterson.
