Laurence Fallon, a former president of Macra na Feirme, is regarded as one of the best dry-stock farmers in the country. He believes the CAP reforms spell the end of farming as we know it in Ireland.
He farms 118 acres of his own and 100 more which he rents at Ballagh, Knockrockery, Co Roscommon.
He has a flock of 550 ewes and also runs 47 suckler cows, enough, he says, to give himself and his wife Bernie, a living. They have one son, Michael (10).
"We will be caught every way with the proposed cuts in premia and frankly, we cannot afford a 20 per cent cut in what we earn every year."
He says the Commission had said that the money saved by the 20 per cent cut in premiums would be redirected back into farming through rural development schemes.
"I have tried but I can think of no way that this money will come back to me or my operation which has high animal welfare and food safety standards. The devil is in the detail in this reform.
"We don't know, for instance, if the land I rent will carry the premium payments for the cattle and sheep or will it belong to the person who owns the land?
"Will the value of my assets fall and the value of all land be debased because of this? There are hundreds of questions which have to be answered," he says.
"What I do know is that as a farmer I cannot trust Brussels ever again because of what they have done this time. When the CAP was reformed in Agenda 2000, we thought we knew what was going to happen for the next six years and we were happy with that.
"Now, two years into that and two years into the borrowings and commitments which I and other farmers have entered into, the whole system has been changed."
He adds: "What we have seen is an attempt to dismantle the CAP which provided food security and cheap food for the people of Europe.
"That structure has now been removed if the reforms as outlined go through. I will be attempting to produce and sell animals at world prices which are half of what we get now and even those are not enough to give us a profit without the supports."
Mr Fallon fears many smaller farmers will walk away from the land and only the big operators will be able to survive in the new environment. This had already happened in pig and potato production here where there were good years and bad years but no stability at all.
"I have seen what has happened in America and the same is likely to happen here if the system is imposed on us.
"I built up my farm over the last 12 or 13 years so I would be able to make a living and survive. Now I am not sure if I can do that in the new conditions."
The option of closing the farm gate and not producing any food and drawing payments for work done in the past is not an option he wants to take but he fears that many farmers will do so.
"I cannot make a living without the supports and cannot take a 20 per cent reduction in them. Who can?"